Identification of Novel Genes and Associated Drugs in Advanced Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma by Bioinformatic Methods

Abstract

The current work screened differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) and found potential biomarkers and drugs for advanced ccRCC. After analyzing GSE53757 and GSE66271, we identified DEGs and performed the functional annotation, pathway enrichment, validation, survival analysis, and candidate drug analysis. We obtained 861 common DEGs from datasets between advanced ccRCC tissues and normal kidney tissues. Besides, we performed functional analysis under ontological conditions and carried out pathway analysis. The five most stable core gene groups and top 10 genes were screened using the Cytoscape software. We performed functional and pathway analyses again and found that the core genes were similar to total DEGs. After verification, the expression trends of the 10 hub genes did not change. Survival analysis showed high expressions of TOP2A, BIRC5, BUB1, MELK, RRM2, and TPX2 genes, suggesting that they might participate in cancer occurrence, migration, and relapse of ccRCC. The gene-drug analysis showed that gallium nitrate, cladribine, and amonafide were strongly associated with RRM2 and TOP2A. We found that RRM2 and TOP2A might be predictive biomarkers and novel targeted therapy for advanced ccRCC. These drugs (gallium nitrate, cladribine, and amonafide) might be used for treating advanced ccRCC.