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Introduction
Cancer is considered as one of the four major non-communicable diseases (1). Due to a delay in diagnosis, its poor prognosis and high recurrence rate, cancer is becoming one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide (2,3). Cancer incidence and mortality rates have increased over the last decade. The global cancer burden is estimated to have risen to 18.1 million new cancer cases, and 9.6 million cancer-associated mortalities were reported in 2018 (4), compared with 12.7 million and 7.6 million, respectively, in 2008 (5). Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore novel potential cancer biomarkers that will have beneficial prognostic and therapeutic implications.
Biglycan (BGN; also known as proteoglycan-1 and dermatan sulfate PG-1) is a single-copy gene localized on the long arm of human X chromosome Xq13-qter (6). This gene contains at least two introns and it spans ~6 kb in length (7). BGN is a key member of the small leucine-rich proteoglycan family that resides at the cell surface or in the pericellular space of tissues (8). BGN is typically expressed in the nerve, bone, cartilage, skin and muscles, modulating the morphology, growth, adhesion, bone mineralization, inflammation, migration and differentiation of epithelial cells (9). The upregulation of BGN has been reported in multiple types of solid cancer, including ovarian carcinoma (10), prostate cancer (11), pancreatic cancer (12), gastric cancer (13) and colon cancer (14). Overexpressed BGN has been reported to be associated with the aggressive growth and metastasis of tumors (13,14), and with a worse prognosis for patients with gastric cancer (15) and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (16). These findings suggest that the BGN gene may act as either a potential therapeutic target or prognostic biomarker in multiple types of cancer. However, the transcriptional expression and prognostic value of the BGN gene in human cancers requires further investigation.
The present study investigated the mRNA expression levels of BGN in human normal and cancer tissues, using the Oncomine database. In addition, the prognostic value of BGN mRNA expression in patients with cancer was also assessed using the UALCAN, OncoLnc and the Kaplan-Meier Plotter databases. Finally, co-expression gene analysis was conducted using the protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of BGN.
Materials and methods
Analysis of BGN expression in multiple cancers using Oncomine
Oncomine is a cancer microarray...