Identification of potential biomarkers in cancer testis antigens for glioblastoma.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To screen and validate cancer testis antigens (CTAs) as potential biomarkers and explore their molecular mechanisms in glioblastoma (GBM). METHODS: Ribonucleic acid sequencing (RNA-seq) and bioinformatics analyses were utilized to screen the highly expressed CTAs in GBM. Correlation analysis was used to identify potential biomarkers associated with tumor purity and prognosis. Immunohistochemistry was applied for detection of protein expression. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, functional enrichment analysis, and binding domain prediction were performed to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms of GBM. RESULTS: A total of 8 highly expressed CTAs were identified in GBM. One of them was PDZ-binding kinase (PBK). PBK messenger RNA (mRNA) was most highly expressed in GBM and associated with tumor purity and prognosis, PBK protein expression was also significantly increased in GBM tissues and correlated with p53 expression. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the PBK related genes were predominantly enriched in cell cycle pathway with 38 genes enriched. The proteins encoding by these 38 genes were performed by binding domain prediction analysis, which demonstrated 15 proteins interacting with PBK. Most of these proteins were up regulated in GBM. CONCLUSION: PBK is highly expressed in GBM. It may serve as a potential biomarker for GBM targeting therapy and the cell cycle modulator by interacting with certain key molecules of cell cycle in GBM.