Bioinformatic analysis of potential hub genes in gastric adenocarcinoma

Gastric adenocarcinoma is the most common histologic type of gastric cancer; however, the pathogenic mechanisms remain unclear. To improve mechanistic understanding and identify new treatment targets or diagnostic biomarkers, we used bioinformatic tools to predict the hub genes related to the process of gastric adenocarcinoma development from public datasets, and explored their prognostic significance. We screened differentially expressed genes between gastric adenocarcinoma and normal gastric tissues in Gene Expression Omnibus datasets (GSE79973, GSE118916, and GSE29998) using the GEO2R tool, and their functions were annotated with Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes signaling pathway enrichment analyses in the DAVID database. Hub genes were identified based on the protein-protein network constructed in the STRING database with Cytoscape software. A total of 10 hub genes were selected for further analysis, and their expression patterns in gastric adenocarcinoma patients were investigated using the Oncomine GEPIA database. The expression levels of ATP4A, CA9, FGA, ALDH1A1, and GHRL were reduced, whereas those of TIMP1, SPP1, CXCL8, THY1, and COL1A1 were increased in gastric adenocarcinoma. The Kaplan-Meier online plotter tool showed associations of all hub genes except for CA9 with prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma patients; CXCL8 and ALDH1A1 were positively correlated with survival, and the other genes were negatively correlated with survival. These 10 hub genes may be involved in important processes in gastric adenocarcinoma development, providing new directions for research to clarify the role of these genes and offer insight for improved treatment.