Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the function of TNF-like ligand 1A (TL1A) in the tumorigenesis and progression of gastric cancer (GC).
Methods: RNA-seq gene expression and clinical information for GC patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between GC tissue samples and normal controls were screened with the edgeR package. Identification of gene co-expression and functional enrichment analyses were performed with Pearson’s correlation analysis and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), respectively. Lastly, survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method with the log rank test.
Results: TL1A  expression in GC tissue samples were significantly higher than that in normal controls (LogFC=1.07 and P =8.90E-07). Moreover, 215 genes, co-expressed with TL1A , and 21 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were obtained. Next, the miRNA-lncRNA/mRNA network, comprising 7 miRNAs, 27 lncRNAs, and 21 mRNAs, was constructed based on key genes from intersections between co-expression analysis and GSEA. In addition, survival analysis results demonstrated that TL1A  (P =2.6e−07) was significantly associated with the overall survival (OS) of GC patients.
Conclusion: TL1A  was involved in the tumorigenesis and progression of GC, and was significantly associated with the OS of GC patients.
Keywords: TNF-like ligand 1A, gastric cancer, co-expression analysis, GSEA, prognosis