Weighted gene co-expression network analysis of hub genes in lung adenocarcinoma

Xuan Luo; Lei Feng; WenBo Xu; XueJing Bai; MengNa Wu

doi:10.1177/11769343211009898

Weighted gene co-expression network analysis of hub genes in lung adenocarcinoma

Evol Bioinform Online. 2021 Apr 12:17:11769343211009898. doi: 10.1177/11769343211009898. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xuan Luo¹, Lei Feng¹, WenBo Xu¹, XueJing Bai¹, MengNa Wu¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Laboratory, People's Hospital of Yuxi City, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province, P.R. China.

Abstract

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a tumor with high incidence. This study aimed to identify the central genes of LUAD. LUAD were analyzed by weighted gene co-expression network (WGCNA), and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Samples were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases and included 515 LUAD samples and 347 normal samples. The WGCNA algorithm generated a total of 10 modules. The top 2 modules (MEturquoise and MEblue) with the highest correlation to LUAD were selected. Ten Hub genes (IL6, CDH1, PECAM1, SPP1, THBS1, HGF, SNCA, CDH5, CAV1, and DLC1) were screened in the intersecting genes of DEGs and WGCNA (MEturquoise and MEblue). Only SPP1 was correlated with LUAD poor survival, indicating that SPP1 may be a key Hub gene for LUAD. The competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network was constructed to analyze the regulatory relationship of Hub genes, and SPP1 may be directly regulated by 4 microRNAs (miRNAs) and indirectly regulated by 49 long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs).

Keywords: LUAD; SPP1; WGCNA; ceRNA.