ABSTRACT
With high mortality and poor prognosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) has become the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Most of the LIHC patients missed the best treatment period because of the untimely diagnosis. For others, even if they are temporarily cured, they have to face a very low prognostic survival rate and a very high risk of recurrence. Based on the characteristics of abnormal proliferation and uncontrolled growth of tumor cells. Cell Division Cycle Associated (CDCA) family genes, which are responsible for regulating the cell cycle and proliferation, were selected as our research object to explore the mechanism of hepatocarcinogenesis. To this end, we investigated the expression profiles of CDCA family genes in LIHC and corresponding normal tissues, and the effect of CDCAs expression on the survival of prognosis and immune cell infiltration through bioinformatics analysis methods and the publicly accessible online databases. In addition, we also analyzed the expression correlation of CDCAs and screened the neighboring genes related to functional CDCAs. The results revealed that the expression levels of CDCA1/3/5/8 were significantly increased in LIHC, regardless of stage, sex, race, drinking behavior, and other clinical factors. CDCAs expression was significantly correlated with poor prognosis and was positively correlated with the infiltration of dendritic cells, B cells, and macrophages. We also found that the most relevant neighboring genes to CDCAs in LIHC were SGO2, NDC80, BIRC5, INCENP, and PLOD1. In general, our work suggests that CDCA1/3/5/8 has the potential to be a diagnostic gene in hepatocarcinogenesis and prognostic biomarkers for LIHC patients.
ABSTRACT
C-Type Lectin Domain Family 3 Member B (CLEC3B) encodes proteins associated with tumor invasion and metastasis. However, the interrelation between CLEC3B gene expression, tumor immunity, and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. This study was conducted to investigate the prognostic potential of CLEC3B and its association with tumor tissue infiltration markers. CLEC3B expression was examined using the TIMER and Oncomine databases, with its prognostic potential assessed using the GEPIA and Kaplan-Meier plotter databases. The relationship between CLEC3B and tumor immune cell infiltration biomarkers was analyzed using TIMER. Here, we revealed that CLEC3B expression was decreased in HCC and was correlated with a poor survival rate in patients with HCC. Additionally, the expression of CLEC3B was negatively correlated with differential immune cell infiltration and various immune biomarkers. These results indicate a potential mechanism by which the expression of CLEC3B might adjust tumor immunity by modulating the infiltration of HCC immune cells. Our study demonstrated that CLEC3B could be a potential prognostic biomarker and might be involved in tumor immune cell infiltration in HCC.
