Clinicopathological Significances and Prognostic Value of in Colorectal Cancer.

The gene family ( and ) is associated with multiple human diseases, particularly malignant tumors. However, the expression and prognostic value of the family in human colorectal cancers (CRCs) have not been reported. In this study, several databases, including Oncomine, UALCAN, and the cancer cell line encyclopedia, were used to compare differences in , and expression between normal colon samples and CRCs. The expression levels of these four proteins were used to evaluate the survival of patients with CRC, as determined by the Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA) portal and gene expression profiling interactive analysis (GEPIA) databases. Western blotting and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were performed to detect protein and mRNA levels of and respectively. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining was used to detect the correlation between expression and the degree of CRC malignancy. Furthermore, potential miRNAs targeting in CRCs were studied and confirmed. Bioinformatic analysis showed that the mRNA levels of , and were higher in CRC tissue samples than in normal colon tissue. Both mRNA and protein expression of , and were increased in the CRC cell lines LoVo and Hct116 compared with the normal colon epithelial cell line. Only was associated with the prognosis of patients with CRC, which was confirmed by TCGA portal and GEPIA. IHC staining confirmed that the expression of was higher in CRC tissues than in normal colon tissues and also increased in poorly differentiated CRC tissues and lymph node metastatic foci in comparison with well-differentiated CRC tissues and moderately differentiated CRC tissues. Functional annotation enrichment analysis indicated that the top 100 genes co-expressed with were enriched in the G-protein coupled peptide receptor activity, leukotrience B4 receptor activity, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors and hypoxia-inducible factor-1 signaling pathways. In addition, miR-485-5p negatively regulates the expression of . expression is associated with the development of CRCs and may be a novel potential prognostic marker for human CRCs.