1. Introduction
Switching the way to generate energy for cellular processes from mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis, termed as “Warburg effect” [
1], happens in most of tumor cells. It is characterized by increased glycolysis and lactate production even when the oxygen is available [
2]. In colorectal cancer (CRC), glycolysis promotes colonocyte transformation by the obtainment of oncogenic mutation and loss of tumor suppressors, providing apositive feedback to enhance glycolysis and other unique metabolic pathways [
3]. Therefore, tumor cell aerobic glycolysis might work as a promising target for cancer therapy. A plethora of potential therapy targets related with aerobic glycolysis have been explored in previous studies. For example, CD36 promotes the ubiquitination of Glypcian 4, initiates β-catenin/c-MYC signaling pathway and then impairs the downstream glycolysis-related genes, thus suppressing the tumorigenesis [
4]. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments showed that, dioscin, a natural steroid saponin, diminished the phosphorylation of Skp2 and enhanced its degradation, eventually inhibited Hexokinase 2 (HK2) and glycolysis, presenting an antitumor effect [
5,
6].
CRC is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally [
6,
7]. Despite the continuous efforts in prevention, screening and management, the incidence of CRC was still increased by 38% from 2007 to 2017 [
7,
8,
9,
10]. Patients with CRC show diverse prognosis due to the inherent genetic heterogeneity. Therefore, establishing a reliable prediction model for the prognosis of CRC is meaningful for clinicians to choose therapeutic method individually. Several glycolysis-related markers have been demonstrated to be associated with the prognosis of CRC [
11,
12]. However, a single gene cannot predict the outcome precisely. The alteration in expression level between groups of different phenotypes was the traditional clue to identify tumor biomarkers. However, those genes possessing biological significance rather than altered expressions might be omitted in this way.
In the present study, we generated a multigene signature predicting the prognosis of individual CRC patient, focusing on the glycolysis-related gene sets from the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GESA) [
13]. Noteworthy, a clear differential gene threshold is not required in GSEA, having its advantages by coordinated differential expression of annotated groups of gene set. We combined GESA and the Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB) to discover new prognostic markers in patients with CRC. Accordingly, the complete mRNA expression datasets of 540 CRC patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was explored to identify genes and pathway signatures that could predict the prognosis of CRC. A total of 257 mRNAs significantly related to glycolysis were identified and a five-gene risk profile for the precise prediction of patient outcomes was established, providing a new insight toward individual treatment of CRC.
4. Discussion
An increasing list of genes have been identified as molecular biomarkers to predict the prognosis of CRC [
14,
15]. For example, in the study in the study conducted by Kubota et al, microRNA-31 worked as a favorable biomarker and a promising therapeutic target in CRC patients [
16,
17]. Hepatitis B X-interacting protein (HBXIP) was overexpressed in CRC tissues, and assumed to be a prognostic predictor and a new therapeutic target for CRC [
18]. Moreover, a previous study showed that ITGA6 and ITGB4 were useful biomarkers for the early detection of CRC and acted as prognostic indicators for the survival of CRC patients [
19]. However, a single gene can be affected by various factors. Thus, it’s meaningful to build a model based on combined biomarkers to predict cancer outcome. Previous data indicated a combined signature including 4 genes for the prognosis prediction of CRC with lymphatic metastasis [
20]. Furthermore, a gene signature for the prediction of early relapse in stage I-III colon cancer was also discovered recently [
21,
22]. These signatures showed high efficiency, which indicated that a robust gene signature could offer a more accurate prediction than a single gene.
Ample evidence exists that tumor cells could adjust their energy source from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis in order to proliferate efficiently even in a low-oxygen condition. However, researches on glycolysis-related biomarkers of cancer are relatively limited. In this study, we used the CRC dataset in TCGA and performed GSEA analysis to compare glycolysis-related genes of CRC tissues and adjacent normal tissues, in order to identify glycolysis-related biomarkers. Furthermore, a combination of 5 genes (ENO3, GPC1, P4HA1, IDUA, ANKZF1) with prognostic value were identified for CRC patients. Comparing with other biomarkers reported previously, the present risk signature can predict the prognosis of CRC patients with a higher efficiency. Concretely, the present risk parameter may be a more effective prognostic marker in the advanced stage of CRC, which probably attributes to limited sample size, or the variability of glycolysis-related genes may appear mainly in the advanced stage of CRC, making our signature more practical in those stage III-IV patients at who hesitated to take conservative or more aggressive treatment. In addition, the prognostic genes showed a good performance in predicting survival, which was better than TNM staging (AUC for 5-year survival: 0.754 vs 0.686, Figure S3).
Among the five selected biomarkers, β-enolase (ENO3) was involved in the subpathway that synthesizes pyruvate from D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, acting as a lyase in glycolysis. Mutation in ENO3 caused exercise intolerance and rhabdomyolysis [
23]. Moreover, the expression of ENO3 was induced as a consequence of serine/threonine kinase 11 (STK11) loss-of-function in lung cancer. STK11 is a major inactive tumor suppressor in 30% lung adenocarcinoma, therefore, ENO3 may be a promising therapeutic target for STK11-mutant lung cancer patients [
24]. Glypican-1 (GPC1) is a proteoglycan localizing mainly at the outside surface of cell membrane and can shed into the extracellular environment, regulating vital signal pathways such as Wnts, Hedgehogs, et al [
25]. It has already been chosen as one of the genes in the glycolysis-related signature for predicting survival in patients with lung adenocarcinoma or endometrial cancer [
26,
27]. As to CRC, Jian Li and his team suggested that increased level of GPC1-positive exosomes in plasma promoted cancer progress. It also indicated a poor prognosis and might act as a specific diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target [
28]. Prolyl 4-hydroxylase subunit alpha-1 (P4HA1), encoding the catalytic subunit of collagen prolyl 4-hydroxylases [
29], has been studied in a list of cancers, including melanoma, pancreatic cancer, CRC, et al. Consistent with our results, P4HA1 was elevated in CRC tissues, and also promoted tumor growth and metastasis in mouse models. Furthermore, diethyl-pythiDC, a small molecular inhibitor targeting P4HA1, has been proved to be effective in CRC patient-derived xenografts models [
30,
31].
The researches mentioned above imply that several genes involved in the glycolysis-related gene signature of CRC have already been studied in laboratories and clinical specimens, showing potential for targeted therapy. Whereas the others remain poorly understood. For instance, Alpha-L-iduronidase (IDUA) belongs to the glycoside hydrolase 39 family, and its mutation may cause type I mucopolysaccharidosis, a rare lysosomal storage disease [
32,
33]. However, the role of IDUA in cancer has rarely been explored. Ankyrin repeat and zinc-finger domain-containing 1 (ANKZF1) was reported to play an integral role in the cellular response to hydrogen peroxide and in the maintenance of mitochondrial integrity under cellular stress conditions [
34]. A recent study showed that high expression of ANKZF1 was associated with a poor overall survival and recurrence-free survival in CRC by in silico analysis [
35]. The role of IDUA and ANKZF1 in CRC cellular function awaits further proof, as well as the correlation with clinical characteristics.
There are some limitations in this study. Firstly, as the data were derived from public databases, it’s difficult to assess their quality effectively. Secondly, due to bioinformatics analysis in the current study, biological experiments are needed for further validation. In conclusion, we reported a five-gene risk signature related to cellular glycolysis, which could predict the prognosis of CRC patients, and a high-risk parameter indicates a poor prognosis. These findings provide insights into the mechanisms of cellular glycolysis and indicate new potential glycolysis-related biomarkers for the diagnosis and targeted therapy of CRC.