Bioinformatics Analysis And Preliminary Expression Validation Of KIF11,AURKA And MCM2 In Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background and ObjectCutaneous squamous cell carcinoma(cSCC)originates from epidermal or adnexal keratinocytes and is the second most common skin malignant tumor,which usually occurs in exposed areas,such as the face,scalp,neck,and back of hands.In recent years,the development of bioinformatics technology has made it possible to rapidly study the expression of tumor genes or cells under specific conditions and to explore the characteristics and laws of key genes.Our study applied bioinformatics to screen the key genes KIF11,AURKA and MCM2 of cSCC,detected their clinical significance in cSCC and their relationship with various clinicopathological features,which provided a basis for further study on the pathogenesis,and diagnosis of cSCC.Methods1.The study was initiated by downloading cSCC microarray databases(GSE98780 and GSE66359)from the gene expression database,screening the differentially expressed genes(DEGs)between cSCC and normal skin tissues,and performing functional enrichment and protein-protein interaction network analysis.Cytoscape software was used to obtain key genes,which were examined for survival analysis by the cBioPortal database,and the online Oncomine database was used to analyze the expression of key genes in cSCC.2.In this study,30 cases of cSCC tissues and 16 cases of normal skin were collected.The expression of the key genes(KIF11,AURKA and MCM2)in different skin tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry,and the relationship was analyzed between those key genes and the clinicopathological features of cSCC.It was considered statistically significant with P<0.05 that the correlation between KIF11,MCM2 and AURKA was analyzed by the Spearman test.Results1.A total of 164 DEGs were screened from the two sets of microarray databases,including 108 up-regulated genes and 56 down-regulated genes.KEGG pathway analysis showed that the DEGs were significantly enriched in DNA replication and cell cycle pathway functions.Through the construction of the PPI network,KIF11,KIF20A,AURKA,MCM2,and MCM4 were screened as genes with high connection,among which AURKA,MCM2 and MCM4 were significantly highly expressed in multiple databases(P<0.05).2.KIF11,MCM2 and AURKA were selected for expression verification in cSCC and normal skin tissues.The immunohistochemistry results showed that compared with normal skin tissues,the positive rates of KIF11 and MCM2 protein in cSCC were 70.0%and 90.0%respectively,which was considered statistically significant(P<0.05).There was no significant difference(P>0.05)that the positive rates of AURKA protein expression in cSCC and normal skin tissues were 13.9%and 0,respectively.3.There was no correlation among the abnormal expression of KIF11,MCM2 and AURKA proteins with gender,age,tumor site,diameter,differentiation,infiltration,and vascular/nerve/lymphatic metastasis(P>0.05).4.Spearman correlation analysis showed that there was no correlation among the expression levels of KIF11,AURKA and MCM2 in cSCC(P>0.05).Conclusion1.Through the bioinformatics analysis,KIF11,KIF20A,AURKA,MCM2 and MCM4 maybe play a significant role in the pathogenesis of cSCC.2.KIF11 and MCM2 are highly expressed in cSCC,which may be involved in the occurrence and development of tumors,and are new targets for clinical diagnosis and treatment of cSCC.