Expression of UBE2C in lung adenocarcinoma based on database analysis and its clinical significance

To analyze the expression level of ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2C (UBE2C) in lung adenocarcinoma and its clinical significance.

The differences in mRNA and protein expression levels of UBE2C in normal lung tissues and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) tissues were determined with the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Oncomine, and human protein atlas (HPA) databases. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of UBE2C in LUAD. The correlation between UBE2C and LUAD clinicopathological parameters, as well as its relationship with LUAD prognosis was analyzed based on TCGA, International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), and cbioPortal databases. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to analyze the possible pathways of UBE2C in the progression of LUAD.

The mRNA expression level of UBE2C was higher in LUAD tissues than in the normal lung tissues (P<0.01) and it was positively correlated with TNM and N stages (both P<0.05). The UBE2C protein expression level was also increased in LUAD tissues than in the normal lung tissues (P<0.01). ROC curve analysis indicated that UBE2C could be used as an auxiliary diagnostic index for LUAD (AUC=0.969, 95% CI 0.953 to 0.984, P<0.01). Survival analysis showed that the overall survival (OS) of UBE2C high expression group was significantly lower than that of low expression group (P<0.05). The OS of LUAD patients with UBE2C change was lower than that of patients without change (P<0.01). UBE2C was highly expressed in the gene set relevant to cell cycle, p53 signaling pathway, DNA mismatch repair, and DNA replication (all P<0.01).

The expression level of UBE2C is significantly up-regulated in LUAD tissues. The high expression or genetic alteration of UBE2C indicates poor prognosis in LUAD patients. UBE2C can be used as a potential molecular diagnostic marker for LUAD and a potential target for LUAD treatment.