Identification and validation of four novelhub genes with prognostic value in breast adenocarcinomavia integrated bioinformatics analysis

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is an aggressive malignant tumor, which causes a large number of deaths worldwide.Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop effective prognosticmodels for predicting the overall survival (OS) in patientswith BC and for guiding clinical practice. Our study aims toidentify potential hub genes of BC, which might serve as diagnosticbiomarkers and/or therapeutic targets.Materials and Methods: In the GEO database, GEO۲R wasused to analyze the Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) fromthe ۴ databases GSE۴۵۸۲۷, GSE۱۲۴۶۴۶, and GSE۱۳۹۰۳۸.DEGs were screened out based on these three datasets Then, theDAVID website was used to perform Gene Ontology (GO) andKyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses.These protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks of DEGs werevisualized and analyzed using the Search Tool for the Retrievalof Interacting Genes (STRING) website and the hub geneswere further screened using the Molecular Complex Detection(MCODE) plugin. Lastly, the functions of the hub genes werefurther analyzed by GEPIA, UALCAN, and cBioPortal onlinedatabase.Result: In the ۳ Profile datasets, ۱۸۱ cancer tissues and ۳۹normal tissues were collected. Among the DEGs intersectionbetween ۳ datasets, ۵۷ genes were upregulated and ۱۹۵ geneswere downregulated. The PPIs of these DEGs were visualizedusing MCODE plugin of Cytoscape. Then, further analysis ofhub genes using the GEPIA and Kaplan-Meier curves showedsignificant differences in the expression of ASPM, CENPE,MFAP۴, and FIGF genes in tumor samples compared to normaltissue furthermore, revealed that the upregulation of MFAP۴and FIGF is significantly associated with better survival, whileASPM and CENPE are associated with worse survival.Conclusion: This study provides new insights into the understandingof the molecular mechanisms of BC; This bioinformaticsanalysis indicated that MFAP۴, FIGF, CENPE, and ASPMmight be novel hub genes in the development and prognosis ofBC. In addition, the identified hub genes may serve as potentialtargets for diagnosis and treatment of BC in future.