MARCKS is a New Prognostic Biomarker in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Haoran Lu,1,* Rou Zhao,2,* Qianqian Qin,3 Liyong Tang,1 Guodong Ma,1 Baoyu He,2 Jing Liang,2 Li Wei,2 Xutong Wang,2 Qingli Bie,2 Xuning Wang,4 Bin Zhang2,5 1Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Reproductive Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of General Surgery, The Air Force Hospital of Northern Theater PLA, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China; 5Institute of Forensic Medicine and Laboratory Medicine, Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Bin Zhang, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining, People’s Republic of China, Tel [phone], Fax [phone], Email [email protected]: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common type of cancers, but there is still a lack of known biomarkers for the effective diagnosis or prognosis of HCC. Myristoylated alanine-rich C-kinase substrate (MARCKS) is a substrate of protein kinase C, which was located in the cell plasma membrane. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the role of MARCKS in HCC.Methods: The role of MARCKS in HCC was explored by bioinformatics and experiment.Results: We demonstrated that MARCKS expression was significantly elevated in HCC datasets of TCGA. MARCKS was up-regulated in tumor sample in HCC. Functional enrichment indicated that MARCKS-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly enriched in cell junction tissue, response to growth factors and cell population proliferation. Tumor and ECM-receptor interactions related pathways were enriched by the KEGG. MARCKS expression in HCC patients was higher in females, younger individuals, and those at worse clinical stages. Cox regression analysis showed that MARCKS expression was a risk factor for overall survival and disease-specific survival of patients.Conclusion: MARCKS was up-regulated in HCC, may play a crucial role in HCCs, and has prognostic value for clinical outcomes.Keywords: myristoylated alanine-rich C-kinase substrate, HCC, TCGA, prognostic value

Keywords

• myristoylated alanine-rich c-kinase substrate
• hcc
• tcga
• prognostic value