An autophagy-related diagnostic biomarker for uterine fibroids: FOS

Abstract

Uterine fibroids (UFs) are the most common benign gynecologic tumors in reproductive-aged women. The typical diagnostic strategies of UFs are transvaginal ultrasonography and pathological feature, while molecular biomarkers are considered conventional options in the assessment of the origin and development of UFs in recent years. Here, we extracted the differential expression genes (DEGs) and differential DNA methylation genes (DMGs) of UFs from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, GSE64763, GSE120854, GSE45188, and GSE45187. 167 DEGs with aberrant DNA methylation were identified, and further Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were performed by the relevant R package. We next discerned 2 hub genes (FOS, and TNFSF10) with autophagy involvement by overlapping 167 DEGs and 232 autophagic regulators from Human Autophagy Database. FOS was identified as the most crucial gene through the Protein–Protein Interactions (PPI) network with the correlation of the immune scores. Moreover, the down-regulated expression of FOS in UFs tissue at both mRNA and protein levels was validated by RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry respectively. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of FOS was 0.856, with a sensitivity of 86.2% and a specificity of 73.9%. Overall, we explored the possible biomarker of UFs undergoing DNA—methylated autophagy and provided clinicians with a comprehensive assessment of UFs.