Bioinformatic Analysis for the Prognostic Implication of Genes Encoding Epithelial Sodium Channel in Cervical Cancer

Changho Song; Yongho Lee; Shin Kim

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S346222

Bioinformatic Analysis for the Prognostic Implication of Genes Encoding Epithelial Sodium Channel in Cervical Cancer

Int J Gen Med. 2022 Feb 18:15:1777-1787. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S346222. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Changho Song¹, Yongho Lee², Shin Kim^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Keimyung University, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Keimyung University, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Institute of Medical Science, Keimyung University, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea.
⁵ Institute for Cancer Research, Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women. Among the sodium ion channels associated with cancer development, voltage gated sodium channel plays an important role in pathophysiology of cervical cancer; however, the clinicopathological implication of epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) has not been explored.

Purpose: This study focused on identifying dysregulation of ENaC encoding genes, including SCNN1A, SCNN1B, and SCNN1G, and their relationship with clinicopathologic features in cervical cancer patients.

Materials and methods: RNA sequencing data of ENaC-encoding genes, clinicopathologic data, and survival data of cervical cancer patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort. Microarray data of ENaC-encoding genes were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus datasets: GSE6791 and GSE63514.

Results: The expression levels of SCNN1A, SCNN1B, and SCNN1G were positively correlated with each other. SCNN1A, SCNN1B, and SCNN1G are significantly overexpressed in normal tissues than in tumor tissues. Survival analysis showed that simultaneous overexpression of all three genes associated with better overall survival (OS). Each overexpression of SCNN1B and SCNN1G was significantly associated with better OS. Moreover, each expression level of SCNN1A, SCNN1B, and SCNN1G was negatively correlated with histologic grade of tumor.

Conclusion: ENaC-encoding genes might be potential biological markers to better predict survival outcomes in cervical cancer patients.

Keywords: ENaC-encoding genes; cervical cancer; sodium ion channel; survival outcome.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea (grant funded by the Korean Government Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning; grant no. 2021R1I1A3A04037479 and 2021M3E5D7102565).