Abstract
The oxytocin receptor (OXTR) is directly involved in the pathological mechanisms of multiple cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer; however, the role of OXTR in the modulation of colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) growth, metastasis, and clinical prognosis remains to be elucidated. This study used systematic bioinformatics analysis to explore the effects of OXTR on modulating COAD growth and prognosis in patients with COAD. Compared with normal tissues, OXTR mRNA level was higher in COAD tissues, which was associated with tumor progression. Elevated mRNA level of OXTR also indicated a poor prognosis in COAD patients. Furthermore, high mRNA level of OXTR was significantly associated with pathways involved in cell cycle regulation and signal transduction pathways, including the hedgehog, mTOR, TGF-β, and Wnt signaling pathways. OXTR expression was significantly correlated with the infiltration level of type 2T helper cell, central memory CD8 T cell, CD56 bright natural killer cell, activated CD8 T cell, activated B cell, and Type 1T helper cell. Moreover, silencing OXTR inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, and arrested the cell cycle. In conclusion, high mRNA level of OXTR indicates poor prognosis.
Highlights
The oxytocin receptor (OXTR) is directly involved in the pathological mechanisms of multiple cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer; the role of OXTR in the modulation of colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) growth, metastasis, and clinical prognosis remains to be elucidated
The results showed that the expression of OXTR mRNA in COAD tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues (P < 0.001) (Figure 1a)
The KM curve analyzed in GEPIA2 indicated that in COAD, LGG, LUAD, MESO, SARC, and STAD, patients with high levels of OXTR had poorer overall survival (OS) than those with low levels of OXTR (Figure 1b)
Summary
The oxytocin receptor (OXTR) is directly involved in the pathological mechanisms of multiple cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer; the role of OXTR in the modulation of colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) growth, metastasis, and clinical prognosis remains to be elucidated. The processes of cell proliferation and related metastasis in COAD patients are very complex and mainly include the activation of oncogenes and the loss of function of tumor suppressor genes, leading to overactivation of signal transduction networks, including the TGF-β, This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. This study aims to explore the role of OXTR in modulating the proliferation, metastasis, and prognosis of COAD patients by using bioinformatics analysis, which will be helpful for the diagnosis and treatment of COAD. Patients who died of the disease or relapsed within 2 years were evaluated as OS poor
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