Comprehensive Analysis of Differential Gene Expression and Correlated Immune Infiltration in Bladder Cancer

Iran J Public Health. 2023 Jun;52(6):1225-1237. doi: 10.18502/ijph.v52i6.12988.

Abstract

Background: Bladder cancer (BCa) is one of the most common urinary tract malignancies. Our study aimed to provide promising biomarkers for BCa screening and prognosis.

Methods: BCa samples were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analysed by GO/KEGG analysis. Univariate Cox hazard analysis and Kaplan Meier Curve clarified the relevance of DEGs and survival. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed the discrimination ability of DEGs in BCa patient outcome prediction. RT-PCR was used to validate gene expression.

Results: Overall, 61 common up regulated and 170 common down-regulated genes in BCa were obtained. DEGs were mainly enriched in proliferation and metastasis processes. CDC20, COL14A1, SPARCL1, TMOD1, RHOJ, FXYD6 and MFAP4 had clinical relevance to survival with high accuracy. CDC20, SPARCL1 and TMOD1 are promising biomarkers of BCa. CDC20, SPARCL1 and TMOD1 are involved in cancer immune infiltration.

Conclusion: CDC20, SPARCL1 and TMOD1 are promising biomarkers of bladder cancer. In addition, CDC20, SPARCL1 and TMOD1 are involved in cancer immune infiltration, which provides new targets in immune therapy in bladder cancer.

Keywords: Biomarker; Bladder cancer; Differentially expressed genes (DEGs); Immune infiltration; Network analysis.