Abnormal Expression and Prognosis Value of COG Complex Members in Kidney Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma (KIRC)

Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) is the most aggressive subtype of kidney tumours with poor prognosis as well as the increasing incidence rate in worldwide. The conserved oligomeric Golgi (COG) complex is an eight-subunit (Cog1-8) peripheral Golgi protein that controls membrane trafficking and protein glycosylation and plays vital roles in human disease including cancers. Therefore, to uncover the prognostic value of COG complex in KIRC, a series of databases, including UALCAN database, GEPIA database, and Kaplan-Meier plotter, were used to analyse the mRNA expression of COG complex subunits and their prognostic values in patients with KIRC in this study. Compared with normal counterparts, mRNA expression of six COG complex subunits was significantly downregulated in KIRC tissue in UALCAN database, while COG4 mRNA expression was significantly upregulated in KIRC tissue. Moreover, the survival analysis indicated that all members of COG complex subunits were closely related with the prognosis of KIRC patients, while COG1 and COG4 were significantly associated with unfavourable overall survival (OS), the rest of COG complex subunits were importantly correlated with favourable OS. Simultaneously, higher mRNA expression of COG3, COG6, and COG8 exhibits better progression-free survival (PFS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in KIRC patients. These results identified that COG complex subunits, especially COG3, COG6, and COG8, are potential prognostic biomarkers of KIRC patients and may offer effective and new strategies for more accurately diagnosing the patients with KIRC in advance.