Identification of crucial genes and pathways associated with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma based on weighted gene correlation network

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is already a frequent and severecancer around the world. The current study aimed to investigate mRNA expression profilesassociated with ESCC in order to identify important hub genes involved in the cancer'sdevelopment.Materials and Methods: A weighted gene co-expression network analysis was performed usingthe GSE۱۶۱۵۳۳ dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) collection (WGCNA). Thebiological roles of the core gene modules were then discovered by enrichment analyses usingGene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). A search fordifferentially expressed genes (DEGs) led to identification of genes with substantial variance(FDR of ۰.۰۵ and |log۲FC| ۲). Finally, to confirm the study's findings, an online databaseanalysis was performed using XenaBrowser and GEIPA to analyses hub-gene expression andevaluates its diagnostic significance.Results: The blue module (۲۱۹۷ genes) was the most important contributor to ESCC (r = ۰.۹۳,p-Value = ۵e-۲۵). This module’s genes were discovered to be abundant in cytokine-cytokinereceptor interaction, the IL-۱۷ signaling pathway, and the TGF-beta signaling pathway, all ofwhich are linked to cancer development. We found and confirmed five novel hub genesassociated with ESCC (KRT۷۸, ENDOU, AIF۱L, GYS۲ and, SFTA۲), all of which were validatedby the databases provided.Conclusion: In conclusion, these observations provide new visions into the mechanismsunderlying the initiation, diagnosis and treatment of ESCC.

Keywords:

Diagnosis , Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma , Molecular Pathogenicity , Transcriptome Analysis , WGCNA