Mining the Biomarkers and Associated-Drugs for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Bioinformatic Methods

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) showed limited treatment outcome and poor prognosis. This study aimed to screen potential biomarkers and drugs in ESCC. Firstly, GSE26886, GSE111044 and GSE77861 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Next, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between cancer and noncancerous tissues were analyzed by the GEO2R. The Gene Ontology (GO) annotation, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway annotation, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis and hub genes screened were conducted by some bioinformatic methods, respectively. Lastly, the hub genes and potential drugs were verified by the GEPIA2 and the QuartataWeb database. The results showed that 13 up-regulated genes and 81 down-regulated genes were identified. In GO terms, DEGs were mainly associated with cell proliferation, cell migration and cell differentiation. DEGs did not cluster into the KEGG pathway. After hub genes validated, nine genes (FLG, COL1A1, COL1A2, PSCA, SCEL, PPL, ACPP, CNFN, and A2ML1) expression trends showed no change. Moreover, higher COL1A1 or COL1A2 expression for ESCC patients showed poor prognosis. Finally, five drugs used for promoting blood coagulation were identified. Probably, these drugs could show anticancer effects by promoting blood coagulation or inhibiting vascular formation in cancers, which offers a novel idea for the treatment of ESCC.