Objective to identify and verify the regulatory mechanism of DTNBP1 as a prognostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Although the overall survival of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients has been significantly improved, prognostic clinical evaluation remains a substantial problem owing to the heterogeneity and complexity of tumor. A reliable and accurate predictive biomarker may assist physicians in better monitoring of patient treatment outcomes and follow the overall survival of patients. Accumulating evidence has revealed that DTNBP1 plays functional roles in cancer prognosis. Therefore, the expression and function of DTNBP1in HCC was systematically investigated in our study. The expression and prognostic value of DTNBP1 were investigated using the data from Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) cohorts and clinical samples. A series of cellular function assays were performed to elucidate the effect of DTNBP1 on cellular proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis. Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment and Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network construction were performed to screen the genes with highest interaction scores with DTNBP1. Finally, the underlying mechanism was also analyzed using Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and confirmed using RT-qPCR and western blotting. DTNBP1 was upregulated in many types of cancers, especially in HCC. The DTNBP1 expression levels is associated with clinicopathologic variables and patient survival status. The differential expression of DTNBP1 could be used to determine the risk stratification of patients with HCC. DTNBP1 deficiency inhibited cell proliferation and metastasis, but promoted cell apoptosis. Mechanistically, DTNBP1 regulated the cell cycle progression through affecting the expression of cell cycle-related genes such as CDC25A, CCNE1, CDK2, CDC20, CDC25B, CCNB1, and CDK1. DTNBP1, which regulates the cell cycle progression, may be used as a prognostic marker for HCC.