Downregulation of GNA14 in hepatocellular carcinoma indicates an unfavorable prognosis

Guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit α14 (GNA14) knockdown was demonstrated to inhibit the proliferation of endometrial carcinoma cells in a recent study; however, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unknown. In the present study, the clinical significance of GNA14 in HCC was assessed using a dataset of patients with HCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. The Integrative Molecular Database of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Oncomine databases were also used to identify the expression levels of GNA14 in HCC tissues. The association between GNA14 expression levels and clinicopathological features was assessed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and logistic regression analysis. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression analysis were applied to evaluate the independent risk factors for clinical outcomes. The present study determined GNA14 DNA methylation levels and tumor-infiltrating immune cells, as well as used Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) in HCC. GNA14 mRNA expression levels were lower in HCC compared with normal tissues. Downregulation of GNA14 in HCC was significantly associated with tumor grade, clinical stage and T stage. Furthermore, low expression of GNA14 was an independent predictor for survival outcomes. GNA14 expression levels were partially correlated with the infiltration of B cells and macrophages. Additionally, GSEA analysis revealed that the expression levels of GNA14 were associated with multiple signaling pathways, such as translation, DNA replication, and homologous recombination. In conclusion, low GNA14 expression may be a novel biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis prediction for patients with HCC.