Identification Of Molecular Target Genes And Key Pathways In Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma By Integrated Bioinformatic Analysis

Purpose: The current study aims to identify potent molecular target genes and key pathways involving the occurrence, development, and prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and highlight their critical roles in management of NPC. Materials and methods: Expression profiling data for patients with NPC and non-cancer were searched and downloaded from the database of Gene Expression Omnibus. The data sets were applied to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the NPC group and the non-neoplastic group using the linear models for microarray analysis (limma) package in R language. Function enrichment analyses of DEGs wasperformed. The protein-protein interaction network was constructed and analyzed using String and Cytoscape, allowing the identification of hub genes for further analysis. Results: We identified 190 DEGs, of which 69 were upregulated and 121 genes were downregulated in NPC tissues compared to non-tumor tissues. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that DEGs were mainly enriched in leukocyte migration, T cell activation, and cell adhesion. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis indicated that the DEGs were mainly involved in nuclear factorkappa B signalling pathway. Twenty hub genes were identified in the PPI network, including 5 up-regulated genes (FN1, PTGS2, CCND1, ITGAV, and STAT1), and 15 down-regulated genes (LCK, CD19, CCR7, ZAP70, RAC2, CD22, SELL, CD48, PTPN6, TNFRSF13C, BTK, CCL21, PLCG2, TNFSF11, and GNG7). Conclusion: Potential target genes and pathways were screenedvia integrated bioinformatic analysis. Future work is essential to verify the function of them across molecular biological experiments.