Gene

Biology

Identification (biology)

Colorectal cancer

Adenocarcinoma

Cancer research

Botany

Computational biology

Downregulation and upregulation

Genetics

Transcriptome

Bioinformatics

Internal medicine

Oncology

Medicine

KEGG

Gene expression profiling

Cancer

Gene expression

Pathology

Journal of International Medical Research

Objective To identify genes associated with the clinicopathological features of colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods Gene expression profiles were downloaded and preprocessed by GEOquery and affy R packages, respectively. The limma package was applied to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in CRC. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Gene and Genome Encyclopedia (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses for the DEGs were carried out using the clusterProfiler package. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) and weighted gene co-expression (WGC) networks were constructed using the STRING database and WGCNA package, respectively. Results A total of 523 DEGs (283 downregulated and 240 upregulated genes) in CRC tissues were identified. These DEGs were mainly enriched in 111 biological processes, 16 cellular components and 40 molecular functions, such as proteinaceous extracellular matrix, extracellular structure organization and chemokine-mediated signalling pathway. PPI and WGC networks showed that four upregulated genes ( KIF2C, CDC45, CEP55 and DTL) were key genes. Subgroup analysis based on individual cancer stages and histological subtypes indicated that the expression of these key genes was upregulated in CRC stages I–IV, adenocarcinoma and mucinous adenocarcinoma. Conclusions The study provides new insights into understanding the pathogenesis of CRC. These identified genes may act as potential targets for CRC diagnosis and treatment.

Identification of genes associated with clinicopathological features of colorectal cancer