Identifying Proteasome 26S Subunit, ATPase (PSMC) Family Genes as the Prognostic Indicators and Therapeutic Targets in Lung Adenocarcinoma

This study explored the prognostic and therapeutic potentials of multiple Proteasome 26S Subunit, ATPase ( PSMC ) family of genes ( PSMC 1-5) in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) diagnosis and treatment. All the PSMC s were found to be differentially expressed (upregulated) at the mRNA and protein levels in LUAD tissues. The promoter and multiple coding regions of PSMC s were reported to be differentially and distinctly methylated, which may serve in the methylation-sensitive diagnosis of LUAD patients. Multiple somatic mutations (alteration frequency: 0.6-2%) were observed along the PSMC s coding regions in LUAD tissues that could assist in the high-throughput screening of LUAD patients. A significant association between PSMC s overexpression and LUAD patients’ poor overall and relapse-free survival (p1.3) and individual cancer stages (p<0.001) was discovered, which justifies PSMC s as the ideal targets for LUAD diagnosis. Multiple immune cells and modulators (i.e., CD274, IDO1) were found to be associated with PSMC s expression in LUAD tissues that could aid in formulating PSMC -based diagnostic measures and therapeutic interventions for LUAD. Functional enrichment analysis of neighbor genes of PSMC s in LUAD tissues revealed different genes (i.e., SLIRP, PSMA2, NUDSF3 ) previously known to be involved in oncogenic processes and metastasis co-expressed with PSMC s, which could also be investigated further. Overall, this study recommends that PSMCs and their transcriptional and translational products are potential candidates for LUAD diagnostic and therapeutic measure discovery. However, further laboratory research is needed to validate the findings of this experiment.