Regulator of G Protein Signaling 20 Correlates with Long Intergenic Non-Coding RNA (lincRNAs) Harboring Oncogenic Potential and Is Markedly Upregulated in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Yulu Wang,
Maria F. Setiawan,
Hongde Liu,
Tikam Chand Dakal,
Hongjia Liu,
Fangfang Ge,
Oliver Rudan,
Peng Chen,
Chunxia Zhao,
Maria A. Gonzalez-Carmona,
Miroslaw T. Kornek,
Christian P. Strassburg,
Matthias Schmid,
Jarek Maciaczyk,
Amit Sharma,
Ingo G. H. Schmidt-Wolf
Affiliations
Yulu Wang
Department of Integrated Oncology, Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Maria F. Setiawan
Department of Integrated Oncology, Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Hongde Liu
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Tikam Chand Dakal
Genome and Computational Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur 313001, India
Hongjia Liu
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Fangfang Ge
Department of Integrated Oncology, Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Oliver Rudan
Department of Integrated Oncology, Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Peng Chen
Department of Integrated Oncology, Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Chunxia Zhao
School of Nursing, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China
Maria A. Gonzalez-Carmona
Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Miroslaw T. Kornek
Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Christian P. Strassburg
Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Matthias Schmid
Institute of Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Jarek Maciaczyk
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Amit Sharma
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Ingo G. H. Schmidt-Wolf
Department of Integrated Oncology, Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), University Hospital Bonn, 53127 Bonn, Germany
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is at the forefront of the global cancer burden, and biomarkers for HCC are constantly being sought. Interestingly, RGS (Regulators of G protein signaling) proteins, which negatively regulate GPCR signaling, have been associated with various cancers, with some members of the RGS family being associated with liver cancer as well. Considering this, we investigated the role of RGS20 as a potential prognostic marker in 28 different cancer types with special emphasis on HCC. By using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data, our analysis revealed that (a) RGS20 was strongly upregulated in tumor tissue compared with adjacent normal tissue of HCC patients; (b) RGS20 was strongly associated with some important clinical parameters such as alpha-fetoprotein and tumor grade in the HCC patients; (c) besides HCC (p p p = 0.004, mesothelioma: p = 0.039, ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma: p = 0.048); (d) RGS20 was found to be significantly associated with some tumor-related signaling pathways and long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs: LINC00511, PVT1, MIR4435-2HG, BCYRN1, and MAPKAPK5-AS1) that exhibit oncogenic potential. Taken together, we showed that RGS20 correlates with a few HCC-associated lincRNAs harboring oncogenic potential and is markedly upregulated in HCC patients. Our analysis further supports the putative function of RGS proteins, particularly RGS20, in cancer.
