A Putative Hsa-miR-582-5p-CD81 Relationship Identified by Integrative Transcriptomic Analysis in Osteosarcoma

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Genomics
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary bone cancer in adolescents, with poor outcomes for metastatic disease.
• The need for molecular biomarkers in OS is critical for improved diagnosis and treatment.
• Current understanding of OS molecular mechanisms requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify novel molecular biomarkers for osteosarcoma (OS).
• To investigate the prognostic significance of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in OS.
• To explore potential regulatory relationships between microRNAs (miRNAs) and candidate genes in OS.

Main Methods:

• Integrated three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) mRNA expression datasets to identify DEGs between OS and controls.
• Constructed a protein-protein interaction network and prioritized hub genes using network topology algorithms.
• Evaluated prognostic associations, predicted upstream miRNAs, and performed functional enrichment analyses (GO, KEGG, cancer hallmarks).

Main Results:

• Identified 107 overlapping DEGs and prioritized eight hub genes.
• CD81 was significantly associated with overall survival (p = 0.043) and showed reduced expression in OS tissues and cell lines.
• hsa-miR-582-5p was identified as a candidate miRNA targeting CD81 and was upregulated in OS plasma.

Conclusions:

• CD81 is a potential prognostic biomarker for osteosarcoma (OS).
• The hsa-miR-582-5p-CD81 axis is a putative regulatory relationship for future validation.
• The identified gene signature is linked to angiogenesis, ECM remodeling, and metastasis in OS.