2. Academic Validation
  3. Metabolism-associated molecular classification of cervical cancer

Metabolism-associated molecular classification of cervical cancer

  • BMC Womens Health. 2023 Oct 26;23(1):555. doi: 10.1186/s12905-023-02712-6.
Min Zhao # 1,  Xue Zhang # 2,  Qing Huan 3,  Meng Dong 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Medicine, Mianyang Central Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Mianyang, 621000, Sichuan, China. zhaomin2017@126.com.
  • 2 School of Life Sciences, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
  • 3 Shandong Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, 250021, Shandong, China.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 37884919 DOI: 10.1186/s12905-023-02712-6
Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore metabolic abnormalities in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC) for metabolism-related genes.

Methods: We downloaded expression data for metabolism-related genes, performed differential expression analysis, and applied weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify metabolism-related functional modules. We obtained normalised miRNA expression data and identified master methylation regulators for metabolism-related genes. COX regression of data on metabolism-related genes was performed to screen for genes that affect the prognosis of patients with CESC. Furthermore, we selected key genes for validation.

Results: Our results identified 3620 metabolism-related genes in CESC, 2493 of which contained related mutations. The co-occurrence of CUBN, KALRN, and HERC1 was related to the prognosis of CESC. The fraction of genome altered (FGA) closely correlated with overall survival. In expression analysis, 374 genes were related to the occurrence and prognosis of CESC. We then identified four metabolic pathway modules in WGCNA. Further analysis revealed that glycolysis/gluconeogenesis was related to endothelial cells and that arachidonic acid metabolism was related to cell proliferation. These four modules were also related to the prognosis of CESC. Among CESC-related metabolic genes, two genes were found to be regulated by MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and methylation, whereas another two genes were coregulated by miRNAs and mutations.

Conclusions: Among metabolism-related genes, 15 genes were related to the prognosis of CESC. The co-occurrence of CUBN/KALRN/HERC1 was associated with CESC prognosis. Glycolysis/gluconeogenesis was related to endothelial cells, and arachidonic acid metabolism was related to cell proliferation.

Keywords

Cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma; Genetic abnormality; Metabolism; Prognosis; Weighted gene co-expression network analysis.

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