Diagnostic and prognostic potential of the novel biomarker nuclear cap binding protein subunit 2 (NCBP2) in colon adenocarcinoma

Background: Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is an incurable malignancy and the third most common tumor worldwide. Advances in biomarkers screening have greatly contributed to explore the new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for the early detection and prognostic of COAD. However, the heterogeneityspecific nature of COAD in patients of different cancer stages, different races, genders and age are still the major challenge to clinical treatment. Methods: Gene expression, copy number (CN), and dependency score (DS) data were obtained from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE), and linear regression analyses were performed using R language. We conducted receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and compared the area under the ROC curve AUC values to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of nuclear cap binding protein subunit 2 (NCBP2) for the diagnosis of COAD in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Survival analysis was performed in the distinct NCBP2 expression groups. In vitro experiments and bioinformatics analysis were used to investigate the molecular mechanisms of NCBP2 in COAD and its biological roles. A Connectivity Map (Cmap) was used to identify potential small molecule targeted drugs for NCBP2 in COAD. Results: Through the linear regression analysis of DS, CN, and gene expression, we determined that NCBP2 met our criteria. The mean AUC of the ROC curve of NCBP2 was 0.940 +/- 0.050. Survival analysis showed that high NCBP2 expression was associated with a worse prognosis [hazard ratio (HR) =1.98, P<0.007]. NCBP2 knockdown inhibited COAD cell proliferation and caused G0/G1 phase arrest in COAD cells. Conclusions: NCBP2 was the novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of in COAD. Our research had implications for the treatment of colon cancer.