Bioinformatic-based mechanism identification of -related ceRNA and immunoassays in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: is an important transcription factor. Previous studies have shown that the overexpression of is closely related to the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the current research on the regulatory mechanism of is still insufficient. This study sought to identify valuable therapeutic -related targets for HCC.

Methods: HCC-related transcriptome data and patient clinical information downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The expression of the gene in pan-cancer was analyzed using the Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource (TIMER) 2.0 database, and the expression level of in HCC was verified using the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis database. The overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in HCC patients were also analyzed. Subsequently, based on the Encyclopedia of RNA Interactomes (ENCORI) database, we adopted as the research objective and identified the target long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs that suggested the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanisms related to E2F1. We also performed a correlation analysis of using the R language package that contained immune cell and immune checkpoint information. Finally, the drug sensitivity of E2F1 was detected using the R language package, "pRRophetic."

Results: Ultimately, the following 6 potential ceRNA-based pathways targeting were identified-lncRNA: , , and ; and , and . Cluster of differentiation (CD)4 memory activated T cells, memory B cells, eosinophils, and T follicular helper cells were positively correlated with (P<0.05), and monocytes, naïve B cells, and CD4 memory resting T cells were negatively correlated with (P<0.05). The immune checkpoint analysis showed that was positively correlated with , , and (P>0.2). According to the drug sensitivity analysis, may be sensitive to 39 drugs (P<0.05).

Conclusions: This study provides a valuable direction for researching transcription factor , which may be conducive in identifying research targets for HCC-related molecular biological therapy and immunotherapy in future.