Differential gene expression profiling for identification of protective transcription factors in different subtypes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the dysregulated genes among the differentially expressed genes in 41 nasopharyngeal biopsy samples and identify their protective transcriptional factors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The differentially expressed gene profiles were obtained by analyzing both types I and II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC_I and NPC_II, respectively) using EXCEL and Bioinformatics tools. The transcriptional factors were further studied only when (1) the difference in the binding sites of the differentially expressed genes between NPC_I and NPC_II groups was statistically significant, (2) the expressions of the transcription factors were correlated with the gene expressions in the samples, and (3) the transcription factors affected at least 40% of the expression of the related genes.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In NPC_I samples, 80 transcription factors were found to be up-regulated, in which RUNX3, GATA3, NR3C1, NRF1, RXRA, SMAD7, TBP, and ZBTB6 were positive factors and HLF and MTF1 were negative factors, involved in the regulation of the genes in T cell receptor signaling pathway. No eligible transcription factors were found in association with down-regulated genes in NPC_I compared to NPC_II gene expression profiles.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The over-expressed genes in NPC_I are mainly related to immune responses, and we found 8 positive factors and 2 negative factors that regulate the genes in T cell receptor signaling pathway. The 10 transcription factors may serve as potential therapeutic targets for NPC_I. We failed to identify any transcription factors associated with down-regulated genes in NPC_I relative to NPC_II possibly as a result of multiple factors that affect the differential gene expressions in NPC_II including the transcription factors, DNA phosphorylation and modification, chromosome variation and environmental factors.</p>