Screening and Identification of Key Microenvironment-Related Genes in Non-functioning Pituitary Adenoma

Overview

Journal Front Genet

Date 2021 May 14

PMID 33986766

Citations 4

Authors

Jing Guo

Qiuyue Fang

Yulou Liu

Weiyan Xie

Chuzhong Li

Yazhuo Zhang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: Non-functioning pituitary adenoma (NFPA) is a very common type of intracranial tumor, which can be locally invasive and can have a high recurrence rate. The tumor microenvironment (TME) shows a high correlation with tumor pathogenesis and prognosis. The current study aimed to identify microenvironment-related genes in NFPAs and assess their prognostic value.

Methods: 73 NFPA tumor samples were collected from Beijing Tiantan Hospital and transcriptional expression profiles were obtained through microarray analysis. The immune and stromal scores of each sample were calculated through the ESTIMATE algorithm, and the patients were divided into high and low immune/stromal score groups. Intersection differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were then obtained to construct a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Potential functions and pathways of intersection DEGs were then analyzed through Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. The prognostic value of these genes was evaluated. The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in another set of NFPA samples was used to confirm the credibility of the bioinformatics analysis.

Results: The immune/stromal scores were significantly correlated with cavernous sinus (CS) invasion. The Kaplan-Meier curve indicated that the high immune score group was significantly related to poor recurrence-free survival. We identified 497 intersection DEGs based on the high vs. low immune/stromal score groups. Function enrichment analyses of 497 DEGs and hub genes from the PPI network showed that these genes are mainly involved in the immune/inflammatory response, T cell activation, and the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase-protein kinase B signaling pathway. Among the intersection DEGs, 88 genes were further verified as significantly expressed between the CS invasive group and the non-invasive group, and five genes were highly associated with NFPA prognosis.

Conclusion: We screened out a series of critical genes associated with the TME in NFPAs. These genes may play a fundamental role in the development and prognosis of NFPA and may yield new therapeutic targets.

Citing Articles

Single-cell transcriptomics link gene expression signatures to clinicopathological features of gonadotroph and lactotroph PitNET.

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PMID: 39548496 PMC: 11566263. DOI: 10.1186/s12967-024-05821-4.

Identification of biomarkers associated with the invasion of nonfunctional pituitary neuroendocrine tumors based on the immune microenvironment.

Wu J, Guo J, Fang Q, Liu Y, Li C, Xie W Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023; 14:1131693.

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