Identification of novel biomarkers, MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 for gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, and it is also the third largest cause of cancer-related death in the world. As far as we know, no biomarker has been widely accepted for early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of gastric cancer. The purpose of this study is to find potential biomarkers to predict the prognosis of GC. The gene expression profiles of GSE2685 were downloaded from GEO database. Morpheus was used to calculate the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between primary advanced gastric cancer tissues and noncancerous gastric tissues. The gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed, and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network of DEGs was constructed. Kaplan–Meier Plotter was used to determine the overall survival (OS) outcomes of UC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44, and GEPIA was used to determine the Pearson correlation analysis. In total, 710 DEGs were identified in GC, including 396 upregulated genes and 314 downregulated genes. GO enrichment revealed that they were mainly enriched in binding, catalytic activity, cellular process and cell. KEGG pathway revealed that they were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways, pathways in cancer and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 were identified from the PPI network. MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 were demonstrated to have prognostic value for patients with GC. MUC5AC, MUC1 exhibited low expression levels in GC tissues, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 presented high expression levels in GC tissues. In particular, KRT7 is hardly expressed in normal gastric tissues. MUC5AC and MUC1 were negatively correlated with GAPDH, CD44, respectively; and GAPDH was positively correlated with CD44 and KRT7, respectively. Moreover. MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, and CD44 are not only related to GC but also to apoptosis pathway. Results from the present study suggested that MUC5AC, MUC1, KRT7, GAPDH, CD44 may represent novel prognostic biomarkers for GC.