Expression and prognostic analysis of BGN in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Longzhu Zhao; Jiusi Liang; Wen Zhong; Caixia Han; Dongzhe Liu; Xiuhui Chen

doi:10.1016/j.gene.2022.146461

Expression and prognostic analysis of BGN in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Gene. 2022 Jun 15:827:146461. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146461. Epub 2022 Mar 28.

Authors

Longzhu Zhao¹, Jiusi Liang¹, Wen Zhong², Caixia Han³, Dongzhe Liu⁴, Xiuhui Chen⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Third Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
³ Department of Hematology-Oncology, International Cancer Center, Shenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen, China.
⁴ Department of Hematology-Oncology, International Cancer Center, Shenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen, China. Electronic address: dongzheliu@szu.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China. Electronic address: 106942878@qq.com.

PMID: 35358652
DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146461

Abstract

Objective: BGN belongs to class of small leucine rich proteoglycans, which is high expression in plenty of human cancers. However, the detailed role of BGN remains unclear in Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC).

Materials and methods: In this study, we assessed the transcriptional expression, protein expression, prognosis, co-expressed genes, functional enrichment, and hub genes in HNSC patients based on the data published in the following databases: ONCOMINE, GEPIA, GEO, LinkedOmics, and HPA databases. Data from the TCGA database was used to analyze the correlations between BGN expression and different clinicopathological features, as well as prognostic analysis.

Results: We found that the expression of BGN is higher in patients with HNSC than in control tissues. Pathologically, high BGN expression was significantly correlated with T3 and T4 stage. Besides, high expression of BGN is a poor prognostic factor for overall surviva, not disease free survival. The co-expression genes associated with BGN expression exhibited enriched in various function and pathway, such as extracellular matrix, mitochondrion, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. A total of 10 hub genes were identified from the co-expressed genes, within which five genes, including FSTL1, LAMB1, SDC2, VCAN, and IGFBP7, were significantly increased in patient's with HNSC. BGN exhibited weak correlations with tumor-infiltrating CD4+ T, macrophages cell, and dendritic cells. Futhermore, many markers of infiltrating immune cells, such as Treg, showed different BGN-related immune infiltration patterns. BGN expression showed strong correlations with diverse immune marker sets in COAD and STAD.

Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that BGN is high expression in HNSC and is a poor prognostic factor for clinical outcome in patients with HNSC. It could serve as a potential prognostic biomarker for patients survival in HNSC.

Keywords: BGN; Database; Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; Prognosis.

MeSH terms

Biglycan* / genetics
Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics
Follistatin-Related Proteins*
Head and Neck Neoplasms* / genetics
Humans
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / metabolism
Prognosis
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck* / genetics

Substances

BGN protein, human
Biglycan
Biomarkers, Tumor
Follistatin-Related Proteins
FSTL1 protein, human