BCL2 and hsa-miR-181a-5p are potential biomarkers associated with papillary thyroid cancer based on bioinformatics analysis.

Background: The morbidity of thyroid carcinoma has been rising worldwide and increasing faster than any other cancer type. The most common subtype with the best prognosis is papillary thyroid cancer (PTC); however, the exact molecular pathogenesis of PTC is still not completely understood.

Methods: In the current study, 3 gene expression datasets (GSE3678, GSE3467, and GSE33630) and 2 miRNA expression datasets (GSE113629 and GSE73182) of PTC were selected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and were further used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and deregulated miRNAs between normal thyroid tissue samples and PTC samples. Then, Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analyses were conducted, and a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to explore the potential mechanism of PTC carcinogenesis. The hub gene detection was performed using the CentiScaPe v2.0 plugin, and significant modules were discovered using the MCODE plugin for Cytoscape. In addition, a miRNA-gene regulatory network in PTC was constructed using common deregulated miRNAs and DEGs.

Results: A total of 263 common DEGs and 12 common deregulated miRNAs were identified. Then, 6 significant KEGG pathways (P < 0.05) and 82 significant GO terms were found to be enriched, indicating that PTC was closely related to amino acid metabolism, development, immune system, and endocrine system. In addition, by constructing a PPI network and miRNA-gene regulatory network, we found that hsa-miR-181a-5p regulated the most DEGs, while BCL2 was targeted by the most miRNAs.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that hsa-miR-181a-5p and BCL2 and their regulatory networks may play important roles in the pathogenesis of PTC.