RGL2 as an age-dependent factor regulates colon cancer progression

Colon cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death, and exhibited clinical differences among patients of different ages, including malignancy, metastasis, and mortality rate. Few studies, however, focus on the communications between aging and colon cancer. Here we identified age-dependent differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in colon cancer using TCGA transcriptome data. Through analyzing multi-omics high throughput data, including ATAC-Seq, DNaseI-Seq and ChIP-Seq, we obtained six age-dependent transcription factors in colon cancer, and their age-dependent targets, significantly affecting patients’ overall survivals. Transcription factor ETS1 potentially functioned in both aging process and colon cancer progression through regulating its targets, RGL2 and SLC2A3. In addition, comparing with its relative lower expression levels in elderly patients, higher levels of RGL2 were detected in young patients, and significantly associated with larger tumor size, higher metastasis, and invasions of colon cancer, consistent with the clinical traits that young patients’ colon cancer exhibited late stages with more aggressiveness. Thus, these elements may serve as keys linking aging and colon cancer, and providing new insights and basis for mechanism researches, as well as diagnosis and therapies of colon cancer, especially in young patients.