ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death worldwide. The molecular mechanism underlying HCC is still unclear. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis to explore the genes, pathways and their interactions involved in HCC. METHODS: We analysed the gene expression datasets corresponding to 488 samples from 10 studies on HCC and identified the genes differentially expressed in HCC samples. Then, the genes were compared against Phenolyzer and GeneCards to screen those potentially associated with HCC. The features of the selected genes were explored by mapping them onto the human protein-protein interaction network, and a subnetwork related to HCC was constructed. Hub genes in this HCC specific subnetwork were identified, and their relevance with HCC was investigated by survival analysis. RESULTS: We identified 444 differentially expressed genes (177 upregulated and 267 downregulated) related to HCC. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that pathways like p53 signalling and chemical carcinogenesis were eriched in HCC genes. In the subnetwork related to HCC, five disease modules were detected. Further analysis identified six hub genes from the HCC specific subnetwork. Survival analysis showed that the expression levels of these genes were negatively correlated with survival rate of HCC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Based on a systems biology framework, we identified the genes, pathways, as well as the disease specific network related to HCC. We also found novel biomarkers whose expression patterns were correlated with progression of HCC, and they could be candidates for further investigation.
Subject(s)
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular , Liver Neoplasms , Biomarkers, Tumor/genetics , Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/genetics , Computational Biology , Gene Expression Profiling , Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic , Gene Regulatory Networks , Humans , Liver Neoplasms/genetics , PrognosisABSTRACT
To study if the immune response in vivo induced by dendritic cells (DC) pulsed with tumor extract can inhibit the growth of implanted tumor and reject the challenge of tumor cells in nudes, we isolated and purified DC from hepato-cellcular cancer(HCC) patient with combination of granulocyte /macrophage colony stimulating factor and interleukin 4; extracted tumor-associated antigen from human hepatocellcular cancer cell line HepG2 tumor cells; initiated the T lymphocyte with DC pulsed by the TAA to product cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL); implanted the CTL to inhibit the growth of implanted tumor in nudes and protected the nudes against the further challenge of HepG2 tumor cells, and further found that the CTL induced by DC pulsed with TAA from HepG2 tumor cells can inhibit the growth of implanted tumor in nudes and protect the nudes against the further challenge of HepG2 tumor cells. The results suggest, as a new concept anti-tumor vaccine, DC pulsed by TAA may play an important role in therapy and prevent against tumor.
