Whole-exome mutational landscape and molecular marker study in mucinous and clear cell ovarian cancer cell lines 3AO and ES2

BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer is one of the most lethal cancers in women because it is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. The molecular markers investigated thus far have been unsatisfactory. METHODS: We performed whole-exome sequencing on the human ovarian cancer cell lines 3AO and ES2 and the normal ovarian epithelial cell line IOSE-80. Molecular markers of ovarian cancer were screened from shared mutation genes and copy number variation genes in the 6q21-qter region. RESULTS: We found that missense mutations were the most common mutations in the gene (93%). The MUC12, FLG and MUC16 genes were highly mutated in 3AO and ES2 cells. Copy number amplification occurred mainly in 4p16.1 and 11q14.3, and copy number deletions occurred in 4q34.3 and 18p11.21. A total of 23 hub genes were screened, of which 16 were closely related to the survival of ovarian cancer patients. The three genes CCDC170, THBS2 and COL14A1 are most significantly correlated with the survival and prognosis of ovarian cancer. In particular, the overall survival of ovarian cancer patients with high CCDC170 gene expression was significantly prolonged (P < 0.001). The expression of CCDC170 in normal tissues was significantly higher than that in ovarian cancer tissues (P < 0.05), and its expression was significantly decreased in advanced ovarian cancer. Western blotting and immunofluorescence assays also showed that the expression of CCDC170 in ovarian cancer cells was significantly lower than that in normal cells (P < 0.001, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: CCDC170 is expected to become a new diagnostic molecular target and prognostic indicator for ovarian cancer patients, which can provide new ideas for the design of antitumor drugs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-023-10791-9.