HNRNPC Promotes Proliferation, Metastasis and Predicts Prognosis in Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Introduction

The incidence of prostate cancer remains high worldwide, while exploring new therapeutic targets for prostate cancer is essential. Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins have been proved to regulate tumorigeneses in various cancers. This study aimed to explore the role of HNRNPC in prostate cancer progression.

Methods

HNRNPC expression and its correlation with clinical features and immune infiltration were analyzed by bioinformatics analysis. The effects of HNRNPC on prostate cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were accessed by EdU, colony formation, transwell, and wound-healing assays.

Results

The expression level of HNRNPC was significantly increased in prostate cancer tissues and was correlated with the T stage, N stage, Gleason score, PSA level, residual tumors, overall survival, disease-specific survival, and progression-free interval of prostate cancer patients. Silencing HNRNPC inhibited the proliferation and metastasis of prostate cancer cells. The expression of HNRNPC was negatively correlated with the infiltration level of most immune cells in prostate cancer. Mechanistically, HNRNPC may function through regulating gene expression at the posttranscriptional level.

Conclusion

HNRNPC could be a potential marker for the treatment and prognosis prediction of prostate cancer.

Keywords:

• HNRNPC
• prostate cancer
• proliferation
• metastasis
• immune infiltration

Ethical Statement

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Author Contributions

Shiyu Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – Original Draft, Visualization. Guoxiong Xu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Resources. Fan Chao: Conceptualization, Writing – Review & Editing. Cong Zhang: Investigation, Validation. Dunsheng Han: Investigation, Validation. Gang Chen: Conceptualization, Writing – Review & Editing, Resources, Project administration, Supervision, Funding acquisition. All authors contributed to data analysis, drafting, or revising the article, have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted, gave final approval for the version to be published, and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.