Identifying Universal Differentially Expressed Genes In Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma At The Individual Level

Identification of genes differentially expressed between cancer and normal tissues is the basic analysis of cancer research.However,the widely used differential expression analysis can only capture genes whose expression levels are statistically different between the two types of samples,that is,the differentially expressed genes at the population level,but cannot identify genes whose expression in tumor deviates from normal in individual.Matched tumor and adjacent normal profiles are a special kind of data,which can reflect the relative changes of gene expression in tumor referring to adjacent normal tissue.In this study,we firstly identified differentially expressed genes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues and normal esophageal tissues at the population level.Then we collected the gene expression profiles of 117 pairs of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues and adjacent normal tissues.By directly comparing the expression level of the genes in the paired tissues,we determined the changes of genes expression in each patient,and then depicted the frequency of differentially expressed genes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.On this basis,we have found some genes are dysregulated in the same direction in more than 99.14% of the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients.Accordingly,we proposed the concept of universal differentially expressed genes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.And 170 universal differentially expressed genes(including 141 up-regulated and 29 down-regulated genes)were identified in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.These gene are dysregulated at least 95.73% patients.It is a common change in the molecular level of squamous cell carcinogenesis in the esophagus.These genes are involved in important biological processes in cells,including some coding kinases,such as CHEK1 and ATR involved in the DNA damage response in cell cycle.AURKA and AURKB play a role in the process of cell mitosis.In addition,the up regulation frequency of the CEP55 encoding centrosome protein 55 was 97.44%(95%,CI:92.73%~99.12%).Because the high expression of CEPP55 in gastric cancer can promote the proliferation of cancer cells,it is presumed that the expression of high expression in the squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus also has the same effect.Then CEP55 as the target to design drugs to inhibit its expression in the squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus will inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells.Besides,CEP55 is a generally upregulated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,it is a worthy target for drug research.In summary,the identification of universal differentially expressed gene in squamous cell carcinoma can provide new clues for the study of the molecular mechanism of the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma and the diagnosis and treatment.