ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the expression of signal sequence receptor subunit 1 (SSR1) and its prognostic value in hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods:Search the expression data and relevant clinical data of SSR1 in hepatocellular carcinoma patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to June 20, 2021, and download relevant public data. The expression levels of SSR1 in 334 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma with complete information and data were analyzed retrospectively. The expression difference of SSR1 gene between hepatocellular carcinoma and adjacent tissues was analyzed by Wilcoxon signed rank test. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were divided into high expression group and low expression group based on the median value of SSR1 expression level (14.660). χ 2 test was conducted to analyze the relationship between SSR1 expression and clinicopathological features. Cox regression and Log-rank survival test were used to analyze the relationship between SSR1 gene expression, clinicopathological features and overall survival rate in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to determine the factors affecting prognosis. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to predict the possible regulatory pathways. Result:Bioinformatics analysis based on TCGA database showed that the expression level of SSR1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (16.320±7.231) was significantly higher than that in normal liver tissue (7.473±1.410). The difference between groups was statistically significant ( t=8.621, P<0.001).The overall survival rate of patients with high SSR1 gene expression group was lower than that of patients with high SSR1 gene expression group (χ 2=10.1, P<0.001). The high expression of SSR1 gene was related to sex (χ 2=4.392, P=0.036), Stage (χ 2=6.264, P=0.012), T stage (χ 2=4.561, P=0.033) and Grade classification (χ 2=14.015, P<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that patients with high expression of SSR1 gene got worse risk of death ( HR=1.030, 95% CI:1.002-1.060, P=0.036), and SSR1 gene expression was an independent predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that the high expression of SSR1 was related to ubiquitination, cell cycle, RNA degradation, mTOR signal pathway, Wnt signal pathway and MAPK signal pathway. Conclusion:SSR1 gene is significantly up-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma, which is related to gender, Stage, T stage and Grade classification. Ubiquitination, cell cycle, RNA degradation, mTOR signal pathway, Wnt signal pathway and MAPK signal pathway may be the key pathways for SSR1 to promote the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma.