Bioinformatics analysis on differentially expressed genes between colorectal adenoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Background Colorectal adenoma (CRA) is the main cause of the progression of Colorectal adenocarcinoma (COAD). Therefore, it is very important to accurately reveal its developmental mechanism. Methods Differential expression genes (DEGs) in three microarray datasets were screened using GEO and GEO2R. R packages were used for gene ontology (GO) functional annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) path enrichment analysis. Hub genes screened by STRING, Cytoscape and CytoHubba were used. R was used for DEGs of hub genes, and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA2) database was used for prognostic Analysis. R-packet were used to analyze tumor pathology, tumour, lymph-nodes, and metastases (TNM) staging, enrichment, immune invasion and prognosis. Results Among the 66 genes, including 36 up-regulated and 30 down-regulated genes. Survival analysis showed that COL1A1, COL5A2, COL5A1 and secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) were associated with disease-free survival in patients. The four genes were related to tumor pathological stage, TNM stage and immune invasion. COL1A1 and COL5A2 were highly expressed in chromatin modification and cellular senescence. Low expression of COL5A1 and SPARC was significantly enriched in neutrophil degranulation and Wp VegfavegFR2 signaling pathways. Conclusions Obviously, these four key genes can serve as important targets for early diagnosis, treatment, immunity and prognosis of CRA to COAD.