The expression of macropinocytosis-related genes in ovarian cancer and their relationships with prognosis

Abstract Background: The mechanism of macropinocytosis has been reported in receptor sorting used by motile cells. Besides, the role of macropinocytosis was previously recognized in cancer progression. We evaluated the prognostic value of macropinocytosis gene expression in ovarian cancer (OC). Method: Ten candidate genes were selected in the intersection between 134 macropinocytosis-related genes from Genecards database and 2925 OC prognostic genes using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Heat map showed ten candidate genes expression. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) analysis was conducted on the ten candidate genes. Protein–protein interactions were constructed using the STRING database. Hub genes were identified based on PPI networks. The key hub genes were selected both in differential expression analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Then we identified transcription factor-gene interaction. The relationships between clinical characteristics and the key hub genes expression were performed with T test. Clinicopathologic factors correlated with overall survival (OS) conducting univariate, multivariate and LASSO Cox regression analyses. Human Protein Atlas (HPA) databases were utilized to verify the results. Furthermore, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) identified the potential key pathways that dominate macropinocytosis in OC. Result:Elevated EZR, HSPG2 and SLC9A1 expression was significantly associated with OC poor survival and clinical features. Transcription factor-gene interaction and GSEA analysis reported many key regulators and signaling pathways that were enriched in OC with varying degrees of macropinocytosis-related genes expression. Conclusions: The three macropinocytosis-related genes might be utilized as new candidate prognostic biomarkers for OC.