An Integrated Analysis of Prognostic and Immune Infiltrates for Hub Genes as Potential Survival Indicators in Patients with Lung Adenocarcinoma

Objective: Lung adenocarcinoma is one of the major subtypes of lung cancer. However, the prognosis of individuals with LUAD is still not promising. Therefore, this research aims to discover useful biomarkers to enhance the treatment and diagnosis of LUAD. Methods: : GEO2R was used to identify common up-regulated DEGs in the GSE32863, GSE40791 and GSE75037. The DEGs were submitted to Metascape for gene ontology and pathway enrichment analysis. Metascape was also utilized to construct the PPI network, and the MCODE plug-in was employed to filter important subnetworks. The prognosis and expression levels of the hub genes were evaluated using the UALCAN, GEPIA2, and Kaplan-Meier plotter databases. The Timer database was utilized to confirm the correlation between immune cells infiltration and the expression levels of hub genes in LUAD tissues. Results: : This research discovered 307 common up-regulated DEGs, and gene ontology and pathway enrichment analysis indicated that they were mostly enriched in mitotic cell cycle process and cell cycle pathway. DEGs in the subnetwork with the largest number of genes were AURKB, CCNB2, CDC20, CDCA5, CDCA8, CENPF and KNTC1. The seven hub genes were highly expressed in LUAD tissues and had a poor prognosis. AURKB, CCNB2, and CDC20 were inversely associated with B and CD4+ T cells. CDCA5, CDCA8, and CENPF have a substantially negative correlation with B Cell, but positive correlation with Neutrophil. Conclusions: : This research demonstrates that increased expression of seven hub genes is associated with worse prognosis for LUAD patients. Additionally, immune cells infiltrating LUAD tissues may serve as a regulating mechanism.