Abstract
Background: Pancreatic cancer is one of the malignant tumors that threaten human health. Methods: The gene expression profiles of GSE15471, GSE19650, GSE32676 and GSE71989 were downloaded from the gene expression omnibus database including pancreatic cancer and normal samples. The differentially expressed genes between the two types of samples were identified with the Limma package using R language. The gene ontology functional and pathway enrichment analyses of differentially-expressed genes were performed by the DAVID software followed by the construction of a protein–protein interaction network. Hub gene identification was performed by the plug-in cytoHubba in cytoscape software, and the reliability and survival analysis of hub genes was carried out in The Cancer Genome Atlas gene expression data. Results: The 138 differentially expressed genes were significantly enriched in biological processes including cell migration, cell adhesion and several pathways, mainly associated with extracellular matrix-receptor interaction and focal adhesion pathway in pancreatic cancer. The top hub genes, namely thrombospondin 1, DNA topoisomerase II alpha, syndecan 1, maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase and proto-oncogene receptor tyrosine kinase Met were identified from the protein–protein interaction network. The expression levels of hub genes were consistent with data obtained in The Cancer Genome Atlas. DNA topoisomerase II alpha, syndecan 1, maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase and proto-oncogene receptor tyrosine kinase Met were significantly linked with poor survival in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Conclusions: These hub genes may be used as potential targets for pancreatic cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Highlights
In modern medicine, pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult diseases to diagnose because of the early development of systemic metastatic disease
A total of 138 common differentially expressed genes (DEG) were identified from the intersected parts of the four profile datasets including 93 up-regulated genes and 45 down-regulated genes in the pancreatic carcinoma samples compared to normal samples, which was exhibited by a Venn diagram (Figure 1)
The gene expression value was extracted from every profile dataset and a hierarchical clustering heat map was plotted to show the DEG (Figure 2)
Summary
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult diseases to diagnose because of the early development of systemic metastatic disease. The 5-year survival rate of pancreatic carcinoma was about 8%, much less than that of other cancers [1]. Some factors that may increase the risk of pancreatic carcinoma including pancreatitis, family history of pancreatic cancer, obesity, and older age so on. One of the main challenges of pancreatic carcinoma chemotherapy is the development of new therapeutic ways affording the elimination of tumors cells while sparing normal tissues. It may ameliorate the depressing outcome of pancreatic carcinoma by molecularly targeted therapeutic approaches used for aberrant signaling pathway in pancreatic cancer cells. Pancreatic cancer is one of the malignant tumors that threaten human health
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