Upregulation of Beclin-۱ correlates withtumor progression and autophagy in gastric cancer; A bioinformaticstudy

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the most common type ofupper gastrointestinal tract cancer and is the fifth most commoncancer and the third most common cause of death in worldwide.Considering the challenges of GC treatment, the use ofcombined drugs along with chemotherapy or surgery can beeffective through various pathways, including the autophagypathway. Autophagy has a conserved mechanism whose mainrole is to recycle cellular components and maintain homeostasisthrough the removal of undesirable proteins. Some importantgenes involved in autophagy are ATGs, Beclin-۱, p۶۲, LC۳. Ithas been found that the expression of Beclin-۱ is high in earlystages of the GC. Here, we aimed to explore the function ofBeclin-۱ gene in the autophagy pathway involved in GC.Materials and Methods: Clinical information and mRNA expressionlevels of Beclin-۱ in patients with GC were obtainedfrom The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA, https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov) based on the following selection criteria includingbasic clinical information of stage, race, age, gender, sampletypes (the normal and primary tumor), histological subtypes,promotor methylation. All requirements were conducted on alarge sample size (>۲۵۰). Datasets were then compared to obtainthe significant p value.Results: Our results indicate that the expression level of Beclin-۱ up-regulated in GC compared with normal tissue. Thisincrease was the more considerable in stage ۳ of both of individualcancer and promotor methylation. The Beclin-۱ expressionin men is ۱.۸ times and promotor methylation ۱۳۰ timesthat of women. The highest expression of Beclin-۱ is from ۶۱to ۸۰ years old and it decreases from ۸۱ to ۱۰۰ years old. TheBeclin-۱ expression grade is more than ۴ times and promotormethylation ۱۱۷.۵ times its normal state.Conclusion: Our study revealed that Beclin-۱can be consideredas an influential factor in GC progress with diagnostic andprognostic values.