Glycolysis-Related Genes Serve as Potential Prognostic Biomarkers in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Metabolic rearrangement is a marker of cancer that has been widely studied in recent years. One of the major metabolic characteristics of tumor cells is the high levels of glycolysis, even under aerobic conditions, a phenomenon that is called the “Warburg effect.” We investigated the expression and copy number variation (CNV) frequency of all glycolysis-related genes in multiple cancer types and found many differentially expressed genes, particularly in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Single nucleotide variants (SNVs) showed that the overall average mutation frequency for all genes was low. The purpose of this study was to establish a predictive model by studying glycolysis-related genes in ccRCC. We compared the expression of glycolysis-related genes in 539 ccRCC tissues and 72 normal renal tissues from The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset and identified 17 upregulated and 26 downregulated genes. Pathway analysis revealed that PSAT1 and SDHB could activate the cell cycle, RPIA could activate the DNA damage response, and HK3 could activate apoptosis and EMT signaling, while PDK2 could inhibit apoptosis. The results of the drug sensitivity analysis suggested that some of these differentially expressed genes were positively correlated with drug sensitivity. Thirteen genes were selected from the gene coexpression network and the LASSO regression analysis. The Kaplan-Meier overall survival curves showed that the expression of upregulated genes in ccRCC patients was associated with lower overall survival. We established a predictive model consisting of 13 genes (RPIA, G6PD, PSAT1, ENO2, HK3, IDH1, PDK4, PGM2, PGK1, FBP1, OGDH, SUCLA2, and SUCLG2). This predictive model correlated well with the development and progression of ccRCC. Thus, it is of great value in the diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of ccRCC and may aid the identification of potential prognostic biomarkers and drug targets.