Prostate cancer (PCa) malignant progression is accompanied with the reprogramming of glucose metabolism. However, the genes involved in the regulation of glucose metabolism in PCa are not fully understood. Here, we propose a new method, DMRG, which constructs a weighted differential network (W-K-DN) to define the important metabolism-related genes. Based on biological knowledge and prostate cancer transcriptome data, a tripartite motif-containing 25 (TRIM25) was defined using DMRG; TRIM25 was involved in the regulation of glucose metabolism, which was verified by overexpressing or knocking down TRIM25 in PCa cell lines. Differential expression analysis of TCA cycle enzymes revealed that TRIM25 regulated isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) and fumarate hydratase (FH) expression. Moreover, a protein-RNA interaction network of TRIM25 revealed that TRIM25 interacted with RNA-binding proteins, including DExH-box helicase 9 and DEAD-box helicase 5, to play a role in regulating the RNA processing of metabolic enzymes, including IDH1 and FH. Furthermore, TRIM25 expression level was found to be positively correlated with Gleason scores in PCa patient tissues. In conclusion, this study provides a new method to define genes influencing tumor progression, and sheds light on the role of the defined TRIM25 in regulating glucose metabolism and promoting PCa malignancy.
Keywords: TRIM25; glucose metabolism; prostate cancer; tumor malignancy; weighted differential network.