SKA1/2/3 serves as a biomarker for poor prognosis in human lung adenocarcinoma

Background Spindle and kinetochore associated complex subunit 1/2/3 (SKA1/2/3), which stabilized spindle microtubules attaching to kinetochore (KT) in the middle stage of mitosis, were dysregulated, and closely related to prognosis in several malignant tumors. Nevertheless, the potential clinical value of SKA1/2/3, especially in terms of prognosis and development of NSCLC, had not been fully elucidated. Methods ONCOMINE, GEPIA, UALCAN, TCGA, STRING and other databases were used to analyze the expression of SKA1/2/3 in patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and its clinical value, and to explore the possible regulatory mechanism of SKA in the occurrence and development of LUAD. Results In patients with LUAD, SKA1/2/3 mRNA expression level was significantly up-regulated, and AUC was 0.9558, 0.7034 and 0.9775, respectively. Increased SKA 1/2/3 expression was associated with smoking, tissue typing, and poor prognosis in LUAD patients. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG) showed that SKA1/2/3 was mainly enriched in DNA replication, cell cycle, homologous recombination, p53 signaling pathway, etc. Hub genes in protein-protein interactions are CDK1, BUB1, CCNA2, CDC20, CCNB2, CCNB1, BUB1B, AURKB, TOP2A and MAD2L1. Hub gene expression in LUAD is increased, and its increased expression is related to poor prognosis of LUAD patients. Finally, the expression of SKA1/2/3 and its correlation with clinicopathological features were verified in 30 clinical LUAD samples. Conclusions SKA1/2/3 may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker and target for LUAD. In addition, SKA 1/2/3 may affect the prognosis of LUAD through DNA replication, cell cycle, homologous recombination and p53 signaling pathway.