Molecular Mechanism of Aflatoxin-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma Derived from a Bioinformatics Analysis

Exposure to aflatoxin is considered to be one of the causes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). With the development of bioinformation, we sought to reveal the occurrence and development of aflatoxin-induced HCC through data research. We identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of datasets GSE127791 (Aflatoxin-treated pluripotent stem cell derived human hepatocytes vs. controls) and GSE64041 (liver carcinoma with unknown cause vs. non-cancerous tissue) by GEO2R to find the common DEGs. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG path enrichment analysis were used to annotate the function of DEGs. Hub genes were screened from identified DEGs by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. The prognostic value of hub genes in cancer databases were evaluated. We obtained 132 common DEGs and 11 hub genes. According to cluster analysis and protein co-expression networks, we screened out the key genes, histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 2 (PCK2). Oncomine database and survival curve analysis showed that the decline in HRG and PCK2 expression in the development of HCC indicated poor prognosis. We speculated that the decreased expression of HRG and PCK2 after aflatoxin exposure to hepatocyte may be related to aflatoxin induced hepatocyte injury and carcinogenesis. In addition, the decreased expression of HRG and PCK2 in the occurrence and development of HCC suggests a poor prognosis of HCC.