The Critical Gene Screening to Prevent Chromophobe Cell Renal Carcinoma Metastasis through TCGA and WGCNA

Common chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (chRCC) has a good prognosis when cured by surgery. However, clinical practice shows that a small number of patients with chRCC will produce metastasis, and the prognosis after metastasis is poor. In this regard, we try to find potential biological targets to prevent CRCC metastasis. In this experiment, we analyzed the clinical traits and gene expression data of chRCC samples which were provided by the TCGA database by the WGCNA method. On this basis, we selected MEtan, a module with a significant positive correlation with the M phase of chRCC, for subsequent analysis. The MEtan module genes in the biological process of chRCC were mainly related to steroid metabolic process, cholesterol metabolic process and STEM cell differentiation. KEGG analysis showed that these genes were mainly enriched in cancer-related signaling pathways, such as Neuroactive Ligand−receptor interaction, cAMP signaling pathway, and Wnt signaling pathway. Subsequently, we mapped the PPI interaction network and screened the key gene beta-arrestin 2 (ARRB2). Expression analysis showed that there was a significantly increased expression of ARRB2 in chRCC patients in comparison to the normal group. Expression survival analysis indicated that ARRB2 was inversely associated with overall survival. We firmly believe that the key genes identified in this study would be able to provide new clues and research basis for the treatment of chRCC.