Decreased Expression of NUSAP1 Predicts Poor Overall Survival in Cervical Cancer

Background: Nucleolar and spindle-associated protein 1 (NUSAP1) was previously reported to be associated with poor prognosis in multiple cancers. In the present study, we comprehensively investigated the clinicopathological features and potential prognostic value of NUSAP1 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC). Methods: The expression profiles of the genes were extracted from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE), Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), and The Human Protein Atlas databases. The association between clinicopathological characteristics and NUSAP1 was analyzed using logistic regression in TCGA patients and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis for GSE7803, GSE9750, and GSE63514 datasets. The prognostic value of NUSAP1 in TCGA patients was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was conducted using TCGA dataset. Results: A total of 68 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in CESC. ROC analysis of NUSAP1 suggested that the area under the ROC curve was 0.968. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that CESC with low expression of NUSAP1 has a worse prognosis than CESC with high NUSAP1 expression (P = 0.005). The logistic regression revealed that low NUSAP1 expression in CESC was related to advanced tumor stage in TCGA database. Moreover, Cox regression analysis showed that NUSAP1 expression correlated significantly with prognosis in the case of patients in TCGA database. GSEA demonstrated that CESC patients with high expression of NUSAP1 were enriched in the G2M checkpoint, MYC targets, and breast cancer ZNF217. Conclusion: The results suggest that identification of DEGs might enhance our understanding of the causes and molecular mechanisms underlying the development of CESC. Moreover, NUSAP1 may play an important role in CESC progression and prognosis and may serve as a valuable indicator of poor survival in CESC.