Mitotic Hub Gene Network in Colorectal Cancer: Integrated Transcriptomic, Protein-Level, and Clinical-Genomic...

Area of Science:

• Genomics and Bioinformatics
• Cancer Research
• Molecular Biology

Background:

• Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease requiring improved prognostic biomarkers.
• Current prognostic assessments need enhancement through novel molecular markers.
• Identifying key genes in CRC can lead to better patient stratification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and characterize hub genes in colorectal cancer (CRC).
• To evaluate a ten-gene signature for biological relevance and prognostic information.
• To assess the utility of this signature in clinical-genomic models for CRC.

Main Methods:

• Integrated three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets (GSE110223, GSE110224, GSE23878) to find common differentially expressed genes (DEGs).
• Utilized protein-protein interaction network analysis and the Human Protein Atlas to identify hub genes and their protein expression.
• Assessed prognostic relevance using Kaplan-Meier analysis, Cox regression, and machine learning in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-COAD/READ) data.

Main Results:

• A ten-gene mitotic hub signature (TPX2, UBE2C, AURKA, NEK2, PRC1, CCNB1, CDK1, CEP55, FOXM1, RRM2) was consistently upregulated in CRC datasets.
• The signature is enriched for cell-cycle and mitotic pathways, with protein-level data supporting biological relevance.
• The signature demonstrated limited standalone prognostic value in TCGA-COAD/READ but contributed modestly in integrated clinical-genomic models.

Conclusions:

• The ten-gene mitotic hub signature represents a coherent proliferative program in CRC.
• This signature has limited value as an isolated prognostic marker.
• The signature may be beneficial within integrated risk models for CRC, pending external validation.