Identification of significant genes with invasive promotion in non-functional pituitary adenoma via bioinformatical analysis

Abstract

\n Background\n\nNon-functional pituitary adenoma (NFPA) is a disease with a high incidence, which accounts for a large part of pituitary tumors and plays a pivotal role. While invasive NFPAs which have not any endocrinology manifestations and space-occupying symptoms at early stages account for about 30 percent of NFPAs. The purpose of the present academic work was to identify significant genes with invasive promotion and their underlying mechanisms.\nMethods\n\nGene expression profiles of GSE51618 was available from GEO database. There are 4 non-invasive NFPA tissues, 3 invasive NFPA tissues and 3 normal tissues in the profile datasets. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between non-invasive NFPA tissues and invasive NFPA tissues were picked out by GEO2R online tool. There were total of 226 up-regulated genes and 298 down-regulated genes. Next, we made use of the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) to analyze Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genome (KEGG) pathway, gene ontology (GO) and Kaplan Meier Plotter. Then protein-protein interaction (PPI) of these DEGs was visualized by Cytoscape with Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING). There were total of 141 up-regulated genes and 171 down-regulated genes. Of PPI network analyzed by Molecular Complex Detection (MCODE) plug-in, all 141 up-regulated genes were selected.\nResults\n\nAfter reanalysis of GO, five genes (ATP2B3, ADCYAP1R1, PTGER2, FSHβ, HTR4) were found to significantly enrich in the cAMP signaling pathway, Neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction and Renin secretion via reanalysis of DAVID.\nConclusions\n\nWe have identified five significant up-regulated DEGs with invasive promotion in invasive NFPAs on the basis of integrated bioinformatical methods, which could be potential therapeutic targets for invasive NFPAs patients.