Identification of key miRNA and hub genes in lung adenocarcinoma by bioinformatics and functional analysis

Abstract Background: lung adenocarcinoma is the main subtype of lung cancer and the most fatal malignant disease in the world. However, the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma has not been fully elucidated.Methods: Three LUAD-associated datesets (GSE118370, GSE43767 and GSE74190) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datebase and the differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) and genes (DEGs) were screened by GEO2R. The prediction of target gene of differentially expressed miRNA were used miRWALK. Metascape was used to enrich the overlapped genes of DEGs and target genes. Then, the protein-protein interaction(PPI) and DEMs-DEGs regulatory network were created via String datebase and Cytoscape. Finally, overall survival analysis was established via the Kaplan–Meier curve and look for the possible prognostic biomarkers.Result: In this study, 433 differential genes were identified. There were 267 genes overlapped with the target gene of Dems, and eight hub genes (CDH1, CDH5, CAV1, MMP9, PECAM1, CD24, ENG, MME) were screened out. There were 85 different miRNAs in total, among which 16 miRNA target genes intersect with DEGs, 12 miRNAs with the highest interaction were screened out, and survival analysis of miRNA and hub genes was carried out.Conclusion: we found that miRNA-940, miRNA-125a-3p, miRNA-140-3p, miRNA-542-5p, CDH1, CDH5, CAV1, MMP9, PECAM1 may be related to the development of LUAD.