Noninvasive identification of immune-related biomarkers in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Primary liver carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumors with a poor prognosis. This study aims to uncover the potential mechanisms and identify core biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The HCC gene expression profile GSE49515 was chosen to analyze the differentially expressed genes from purified RNA of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, including 10 HCC patients and 10 normal individuals. GO and KEGG pathway analysis and PPI network were used, and the enrichment of the core genes out of 15 hub genes was evaluated using GEPIA and GSEA, respectively. We employed flow cytometry to count mononuclear cells to verify our opinions. In this analysis, 344 DEGs were captured, including 188 upregulated genes and 156 downregulated genes; besides that, 15 hub genes were identified. GO analysis and KEGG analysis showed the DEGs were particularly involved in immune response, antigen processing and presentation, and infection and inflammation. The PPI network uncovered 2 modules were also mainly involved in immune response. In conclusion, our analysis disclosed the immune subversion was the major signature of HCC associated closely with JUN, VEGFA, TNFSF10, and TLR4, which could be novel noninvasive biomarkers in peripheral blood and targets for early diagnosis and therapy of HCC.