Aurora kinase A (AURKA) promotes the progression and imatinib resistance of advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is a common tumor that originates from the alimentary system mesenchyme. Compared to typical gastrointestinal carcinomas, GISTs exhibit unique malignant behaviors. Bioinformatic tools and subsequent experiments were applied to investigate novel targets involved in GIST progression and imatinib resistance. METHODS: Differences in gene expression profiles between advanced and nonadvanced GISTs were comprehensively analyzed based on the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset GSE136755. A protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to identify the potential target gene. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to elucidate relevant biological events related to the target gene based on the GSE47911 dataset. Subsequently, immunohistochemistry and Kaplan–Meier analysis were performed to validate the prognostic value of the target gene in GISTs. Overexpression of the target gene was conducted to analyze its function in the proliferation, apoptosis, and imatinib resistance of GIST/T1 cells. RESULTS: In the current study, a total of 606 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened based on the GSE136755 dataset, and the upregulated DEGs in advanced GISTs were mainly involved in cell division through functional annotations. The intersecting hub gene, Aurora kinase A (AURKA), was identified by degree and bottleneck algorithms. GSEA revealed that AURKA was involved in cell cycle-related biological processes. Analysis of the Oncomine and GEPIA databases revealed a pattern of elevated AURKA expression in most human malignances. Clinical assays demonstrated that AURKA could be an independent prognostic factor for GISTs. Additionally, overexpression of AURKA was experimentally demonstrated to promote cell proliferation, inhibit cell apoptosis, and enhance imatinib resistance in GIST/T1 cells. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicated that overexpression of AURKA promoted GIST progression and enhanced imatinib resistance, implying that AURKA is a potential therapeutic target for GISTs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-021-02111-7.