Analysis of carcinogenic signaling networks in endometrial cancer identifies RAB17 as a potential target.

Abstract

Endometrial cancer is one of the most common malignancies in postmenopausal women. Several potential therapeutic targets have been investigated in current research, but few have been used clinically. Therefore, further investigating the potential pathogenesis of endometrial cancer and new effective therapeutic targets for endometrial malignancies is still necessary. Our study used a The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset and two Gene Expression Omnibus datasets for weighted gene coexpression network analysis to identify important genes associated with the histological grades of endometrial cancer. In addition, we performed gene set enrichment analysis on the three datasets and found that abnormally activated signaling pathways and metabolic pathways are the main biological behaviors of endometrial cancer. Moreover, we further used different algorithms and identified the RAB17 gene as a potential study object. To further illustrate the potential role of the genes we analyzed in clinical and cellular aspects, we performed a clinical correlation analysis. Finally, we demonstrated the important roles and mechanisms of the RAB17 gene in the cell cycle, proliferation, and metastasis of endometrial cancer. Using repeated database analysis and cell-level assays, we propose RAB17 as a potential target gene for endometrial cancer for further study.

• Authors: Xing Zhou, Geqing Xia, Yan Liu, Xiaoyan Xin, Rui Shi, Lanfen An, Jun Zhang, Rong Zhao, Yingchao Zhao, Hongbo Wang
• Journal: Journal of cellular physiology (J Cell Physiol) Vol. 236 Issue 1 Pg. 328-339 (Jan 2021) ISSN: 1097-4652 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 32529729 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Chemical References

• rab GTP-Binding Proteins

Topics

• Carcinogenesis (genetics, pathology)
• Cell Cycle (genetics)
• Cell Line, Tumor
• Cell Proliferation (genetics)
• Endometrial Neoplasms (genetics, pathology)
• Female
• Gene Expression Profiling (methods)
• Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic (genetics)
• Gene Regulatory Networks (genetics)
• Humans
• Signal Transduction (genetics)
• rab GTP-Binding Proteins (genetics)