Integrated bioinformatics analysis to identify the key gene associated with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Metastasis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a leading cause of death. The purpose of this research was to investigate the key gene in ccRCC tumor metastasis. Three microarray datasets (GSE22541, GSE85258, and GSE105261), which included primary and metastatic ccRCC tissues, were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Expression profiling and clinical data of ccRCC were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. A total of 20 overlapping differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using the R limma package. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis indicated that the DEGs were mainly enriched in tumor metastasis-related pathways. Gene expression analysis and survival analysis in the GEPIA2 database further identified the key gene HSD11B2. qRT-PCR result manifested that HSD11B2 level was significantly down-regulated in ccRCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. ROC analysis showed that HSD11B2 exhibited good diagnostic efficiency for metastatic and non-metastatic ccRCC. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that HSD11B2 expression was an independent prognostic factor. To establish a nomogram combining HSD11B2 expression and clinical factors, and a new method for predicting the survival probability of ccRCC patients. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) enrichment results showed that low expression of HSD11B2 was mainly enriched in tumor signaling pathways and immune-related pathways. Immune analysis revealed a significant correlation between HSD11B2 and tumor immune infiltrates in ccRCC. This study suggests that HSD11B2 can serve as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for ccRCC metastasis.