Identification and experimental validation of copper metabolism-related genes in cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is a common malignancy which is very harmful to women's health worldwide. Copper metabolism has become research highlight and is expected to be new therapeutic target of cancers, but the copper metabolism related genes connect with cervical cancer remain unclear. This study identified and experimentally verified the copper metabolism-related genes in cervical cancer. First, the gene expression profile of cervical cancer was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database to identify significantly differentially expressed genes of cervical cancer, and these genes were intersected to copper metabolism data set to screened out copper metabolism related genes in cervical cancer. Then gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes enrichment analysis were conducted, the protein-protein interactions were analyzed using the online database STRING11.0. The Cancer Genome Atlas database was used to validate the screening genes and analyze their diagnostic value. Cervical tissue samples from 8 patients with cervical cancer as the experimental group and 10 patients with benign uterine fibroids as the control group were collected, mRNAs was extracted and quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction was used to verify the selected genes. The Human Protein Atlas database was used to verify the expression of the selected genes, and their immune infiltration was studied based on the The Cancer Genome Atlas database. MiRNA-hub gene network, transcription factor-hub gene network and chemical-hub gene network were constructed by us to accurately investigate the molecular mechanism and potential drugs underlying copper metabolism related genes we screened out in cervical cancer. Aquaporin1 and cyclin-dependent kinases1 were the copper metabolism-related genes in cervical cancer we screened out by bioinformatics methods and then validated by clinical samples. Aquaporin1 and cyclin-dependent kinases1 could play an important role in the mechanism of cervical cancer and could be targets of cervical cancer concerning copper metabolism.