The role of associated genes of Wnt signaling pathway in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as a chronic lung disease with two common types, emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is a key factor in lung cancer development which mostly appears in tobacco smoking people, hence the necessity of an early detection protocol for COPD patients based on genome-wide association studies. The NCBI-GEO database was systematically searched for COPD smoking patients with available mRNA datasets. A meta-analysis of gene expression data was performed to identify the significant genes among extracted GEO datasets while considering the genes involved in the Wnt signaling pathway. To further validate the target gene, the Kaplan-Meier (KM) tool was utilized for assessing three types of survival rates, namely first progression (FP), overall survival (OS), and post progression survival (PPS).The obtained results showed that JUN gene was significantly over-expressed among the GEO datasets (p-value < 0.05) between COPD smoking and normal smoking patients. Further assessment using KM tool presented the significant role of JUN gene in lung cancer development, while FP and OS were also studied. However, the expression of JUN was not significant regarding PPS rate. Based on the outcomes of the current study, genome wide association studies are highly recommended for an early diagnosis of COPD. Noticeably, novel therapeutic agents can be developed through understanding the cellular functions in the Wnt signaling pathway.