CORE MOLECULES REVEAL THE POTENTIAL MOLECULAR PROCESSES IN ESOPHAGEAL CANCER

Luyang Chen¹, Xiaoqi Chen², Zhuan Lv³, Yunxia Zhao⁴, Qingxia Fan^{*, 5}, Mingzhou Guo^{*, 1, 6}

¹School of Medicine, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P.R. China - ²Digestive Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of CM, Henan 450000, P.R. China - ³Medical Administration, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of CM, Henan 450000, P.R. China - ⁴Undergraduate Students, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Henan 450046, P.R. China - ⁵Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan 450052, P.R. China - ⁶Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, P.R. China

Esophageal cancer is one of the most poorly diagnosed and fatal cancers in the world. Although a series of studies on esophageal cancer have been reported, the molecular pathogenesis of the disease is still elusive. To investigate the molecular process of esophageal cancer comprehensively and deeply. Differential expression analysis was performed to identified differentially expressed genes in different stages of esophageal cancer. Then exacting gene interaction modules and identifying hub genes in module interaction network. Further, though survival analysis, methylation analysis, pivot analysis and enrichment analysis, some important molecules and related function or pathway were identified to elucidate potential mechanism in esophageal cancer. A total of 7457 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 14 gene interaction modules were identified. These module genes were significantly involved in the positive regulation of protein transport, gastric acid secretion, insulin-like growth factor receptor binding and other biological processes, as well as p53 signaling pathway, ERBB signaling pathway and EGFR signaling pathway. Then, TFs (including HIF1A) and ncRNAs (including CRNDE and hsa-mir-330-3p) significantly regulate dysfunction modules were identified. Further, survival analysis showed that GNGT2 was closely related to survival of esophageal cancer. And DEGs with strong methylation regulation ability were identified, including SST and SH3GL2. These works not only help us to reveal the potential regulatory factors in the development of disease, but also deepen our understanding of its deterioration mechanism.