Analysis of FAM110A expression in liver cancer and its significance based on multi-database

Abstract

Objective: Combined with human protein atlas (HPA), the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Kaplan Meier-Plotter, BioGRID, cBioPortal, STRING and the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) databases, to analyze the expression and significance of FAM110A in liver cancer, and to explore the biological functions that FAM110A may be involved in. Methods: HPA database was used to analyze the expression of FAM110A in human normal tissues and tumor cells. RNAseq data of 374 liver caner patients and 50 normal liver tissues were collected from TCGA. Statistic software R was used to analyze the different expression of FAM110A between liver cancer and normal liver tissues, and relationship between the expression level of FAM110A and the pathological characteristics of liver cancer. Relationship between expression level of FAM110A and prognosis was analyzed through Kaplan Meier-plotter. The FAM110A co-expression gene lists searched in cBioPortal. DAVID platform was used to performed GO (gene ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, KEGG) enrichment analysis of FAM110A co-expression genes. STRING database was used to establish the FAM110A co-expression molecular network. Results: FAM1110A expression in HCC tissues was higher than that in normal liver tissues (W=7 124, P=0.006). The expression of FAM110A was correlated with the degree of differentiation of HCC cells (χ2=6.086 9, P=0.014) and AFP level (χ2=6.694 9, P=0.010). It was not correlated with gender (χ2=0.876 2, P=0.349), age (χ2=2.759 9, P=0.097), pathological stage (χ2=1.950 4, P=0.163), liver fibrosis (χ2=0.138 1, P=0.710) or vascular invasion (χ2=1.814 5, P=0.178). Patients with high expression of FAM110A tended to have poorer prognosis (P<0.001). FAM110A co-expression genes involved in biological process including cell cycle, mitotic nuclear division, sister chromatid cohesion, positive regulation of GTPase activity, DNA recombination and innate immune response. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that these genes were participated in central carbon metabolism in cancer, cell cycle, leukocyte transendothelial migration and Fc gamma R-mediated phagocytosis. Conclusions: The prognosis of patients with higher expression of FAM110A was poorer. FAM110A was associated with tumor cell differentiation and AFP level in patients with liver cancer. It has the potential to be a novel biomarker for predicting the prognosis of liver cancer.