Bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed genes in irradiated non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

To explore the effect of radiation on lncRNA gene expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we searched for lncRNA genes on the Y chromosome for radiation response in NSCLC from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and obtained the expression profile data chip named GSE147708. We then conducted multiple online database analyses: we used GEO2R to screen for differentially expressed genes, Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery online tool for Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis, string online website to build a protein interaction network, and then used Cytoscape software to obtain the hub genes; finally, we used Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) online tool to combine all of these with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data for prognostic value analysis. Approximately 23 upregulated genes and 28 downregulated genes were screened, and the top 20 core genes were obtained by building protein networks. Prognostic analysis results showed that the four genes CCNA2, HIST1H2BH, HIST1H2BK, and HIST1H2BO were related to the prognostic survival of NSCLC. CCNA2 and HIST1H2BK have the functional characteristics of oncogene, which have a certain promotion on the occurrence and development of NSCLC (p<0.05), while HIST1H2BH and HIST1H2BO have the functional characteristics of tumor suppressor genes. These results suggest that the differential expression of the lncRNA genes for NSCLC after radiation is obvious, having the characteristics for either oncogenic or tumor suppressor genes. These differentially expressed genes were screened and identified and can provide a certain diagnostic and predictive value for the tumor progression of NSCLC, the effect of tumor radiotherapy, and the prognosis of patients.

Keywords

• radiation
• non-small cell lung cancer
• differentially expressed genes
• bioinformatics