Identification of Candidate Biomarkers and Pathways Associated with Liver Cancer by Bioinformatics Analysis

摘要

Liver cancer is a common malignant tumor in China, which seriously threatens people's health. The aim of this study is to explore molecular markers for early diagnosis and potential drug targets in the immunotherapy of liver cancer. The gene expression profiles of liver cancer are downloaded from TCGA database and analyzed by R package. A total of 1564 differentially expressed genes are obtained, of which 1400 are up-regulated and 164 are down-regulated. The GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes are performed by DAVID. The STRING database is used to construct a protein interaction network, which is visualized using Cytoscape software and further screened for 15 hub genes. In addition, Oncomine database and survival analysis method are used to verify the hub genes. These results shown that PLK1, CDC20, CCNB2, BUU1, MAD2L1 and CCNA2 genes are closely related to the occurrence, development and prognosis of liver cancer. These genes could be used as potential markers and drug targets of liver cancer, which are provided to assist deeper understanding the mechanism of liver cancer, and find tumor markers and drug targets.