AUTHOR=Ullah Md. Asad , Islam Nafisa Nawal , Moin Abu Tayab , Park Su Hyun , Kim Bonglee 

TITLE=Evaluating the Prognostic and Therapeutic Potentials of the Proteasome 26S Subunit, ATPase (PSMC) Family of Genes in Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Database Mining Approach

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.935286

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2022.935286

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p>This study explored the prognostic and therapeutic potentials of multiple Proteasome 26S Subunit, ATPase (<italic>PSMC</italic>) family of genes (<italic>PSMC1-5</italic>) in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) diagnosis and treatment. All the <italic>PSMC</italic>s were found to be differentially expressed (upregulated) at the mRNA and protein levels in LUAD tissues. The promoter and multiple coding regions of <italic>PSMC</italic>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 <italic>PSMC</italic> coding regions in LUAD tissues that could assist in the high-throughput screening of LUAD patients. A significant association between the <italic>PSMC</italic> overexpression and LUAD patients’ poor overall and relapse-free survival (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05; HR: &gt;1.3) and individual cancer stages (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) was discovered, which justifies <italic>PSMC</italic>s as the ideal targets for LUAD diagnosis. Multiple immune cells and modulators (i.e., CD274 and IDO1) were found to be associated with the expression levels of <italic>PSMCs</italic> in LUAD tissues that could aid in formulating <italic>PSMC</italic>-based diagnostic measures and therapeutic interventions for LUAD. Functional enrichment analysis of neighbor genes of <italic>PSMC</italic>s in LUAD tissues revealed different genes (i.e., <italic>SLIRP, PSMA2,</italic> and <italic>NUDSF3</italic>) previously known to be involved in oncogenic processes and metastasis are co-expressed with <italic>PSMC</italic>s, which could also be investigated further. Overall, this study recommends that <italic>PSMCs</italic> and their transcriptional and translational products are potential candidates for LUAD diagnostic and therapeutic measure discovery.</p>