Comprehensive expression analysis reveals upregulated LUZP2 in prostate cancer tissues

Abstract

Background: Leucine zipper protein 2 (LUZP2) is a vital gene encoding leucine zipper protein. It is of great importance in the incidence and progress of several human cancers. However, little is known about the role and clinical effects of LUZP2 in prostate cancer (PCa). Therefore, it is crucial to unravel the clinicopathological value of LUZP2 in PCa. In all, 1467 PCa and 549 non-prostate cancer (non-PCa) prostate samples were collected from mRNA chip and RNA-sequencing datasets. The protein levels of LUZP2 were verified in 91 prostate gland tissues by in-house immunohistochemistry (IHC). The standardized mean difference (SMD) was calculated to analyze LUZP2 expression. Survival analysis was also conducted to explore the prognostic significance of LUZP2 in PCa. R software was employed to identify the upregulated differently expressed genes (up-DEGs) and coexpressed genes (CEGs) of LUZP2. Additionally, we explored the prospective molecular mechanism of CEGs of LUZP2 through GO and KEGG pathway analyses.

Results: Compared with non-PCa, LUZP2 showed predominantly higher expression in PCa (SMD = 1.05, AUC = 0.88). IHC indicated the protein expression level of LUZP2 was consistently upregulated in PCa tissues (SMD = 2.23, 95%CI: 1.67–2.79). LUZP2 upregulation had an AUC of 0.88 (95%CI: 0.85–0.90) to distinguish PCa from non-PCa tissues. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the pathways of amino sugar and nucleoside sugar metabolism were chiefly enriched with the LUZP2 CEGs in PCa.

Conclusion: LUZP2 upregulation might play a promoting function in the occurrence of PCa.