Context and aims: Which cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) involved in the progress of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) need to be further clarified. To identify prognostic-relevant biomarkers in HCC through a systematic investigation of the prognostic value of CDKs.
Methods and material: We explored the relationship between CDKs expression and the prognosis of patients with HCC using multiple online databases. In addition, their biological functions and correlation with the immune system and drug response were investigated.
Results: Among the 20 CDKs (CDK1 ~20) altered in HCC, the significantly high expression of CDK1 and CDK4 in patients with HCC was significantly associated with worse prognosis. Interestingly, CDK1 had significant co-occurrence with CDK4 and CDK1-related and CDK4-related signaling pathways are closely related to hepatitis virus-related HCC. We identified multiple transcription factors of CDK1 and CDK4; of those, only four (E2F1, PTTG1, RELA, and SP1) were significantly associated with the prognosis of HCC patients. Genetic alterations in CDKs were significantly correlated with disease-free and progression-free survival, which may be associated with aberrant expression of progesterone receptor. Moreover, we found a significantly positive correlation between CDK1 and CDK4 expression and tumor-infiltrating activated CD4+ T cell and exhausted T cell-related signature. Finally, we identified drugs with good potential prognostic value predicted by CDK1 and CDK4 levels.
Conclusions: CDK1 and CDK4 may be potential prognostic biomarkers for HCC. Moreover, targeting four transcription factors (E2F1, PTTG1, RELA, and SP1) combined with immunotherapy may be a new therapeutic strategy for treating HCC patients with high CDK1 and CDK4 expression, especially hepatitis-related HCC.
Keywords: Biomarkers; comprehensive bioinformatics analysis; cyclin-dependent kinases; hepatocellular carcinoma; potential drug; prognosis.