238
Views
1
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Articles

Cell cycle kinases (AUKA, CDK1, PLK1) are prognostic biomarkers and correlated with tumor-infiltrating leukocytes in HBV related HCC

, , , , , , & show all
Pages 11845-11861 | Received 16 Aug 2022, Accepted 24 Dec 2022, Published online: 12 Jan 2023
 

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the high incidence cancers and third leading cause of cancer-related mortality. HBV is the top most risk factor accounting for 50–80% of the HCC cases. Kinases: Aurora kinase A (AURKA), cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK1) and Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1), the key regulators of cell mitosis are overexpressed in varieties of cancers including HCC. However, the exact role of these genes in prognosis of HCC is not fully unveiled. In addition, there is no such an accurate prognostic biomarker for HBV-related HCC. To address this issue, we performed a multidimensional analysis of AURKA, CDK1 and PLK1 with a series of publicly available databases in multiple cancers and with experimental validation in HBV-related HCC tissues. Overexpression of AURKA, CDK1 and PLK1 was found in multiple cancers including HCC. Elevated expression of these genes could result from lowered DNA methylation and genomic alterations. Transcriptional overexpression was significantly correlated with poor prognosis of HCC patients. The expression levels were also significantly positively associated with tumor grades and stages. Furthermore, the expression levels of these genes had a strong correlation with infiltration of immune cells. Our analysis shows that AURKA, CDK1 and PLK1 are correlated with immune infiltration and are the prognostic biomarkers for HBV-induced HCC.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

All the data are available online.

Informed consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Program of Hunan Human Biobank (Grant No. 2020TP3003); Natural Science Foundation of Hunan-Youth Foundation Project (Grant No. 2020JJ5701); Key Research and Development Program of Hunan Province (Grant Nos. 2018SK2090, 2019SK2221, and 2022SK2079).

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.