Kidney cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. It is necessary to clarify its underlying mechanism and find its prognostic biomarkers. Current studies showed that SHMT2 may be participated in several kinds of cancer. Our studies investigated the expression of SHMT2 in kidney cancer by Oncomine, Human Protein Atlas database and ULCAN database. Meanwhile, we found its co-expression gene by cBioPortal online tool and validated their relationship in A498 and ACHN cells by cell transfection, western blot and qRT-PCR. Besides these, we also explored their prognostic values via the Kaplan–Meier plotter database in different types of kidney cancer patients. SHMT2 was found to be increased in 7 kidney cancer datasets, compared to normal renal tissues. For the cancer stages, ages and races, there existed significant difference in the expression of SHMT2 among different groups by mining of the UALCAN database. High SHMT2 expression is associated with poor overall survival in patients with kidney cancer. Among all co-expressed genes, NDUFA4L2 and SHMT2 had a high co-expression efficient. SHMT2 overexpression led to the increased expression of NDUFA4L2 at both mRNA and protein levels. Like SHMT2, overexpressed NDUFA4L2 also was associated with worse overall survival in patients with kidney cancer. Based on above results, overexpressed SHMT2 and its co-expressed gene NDUFA4L2 were all correlated with the prognosis in kidney cancer. The present study might be benefit for better understanding the clinical significance of SHMT2 and provided a potential therapeutic target for kidney cancer in future.

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评价SHMT2及其共表达基因在人肾癌中的临床意义

肾癌是世界上最常见的癌症之一。有必要阐明其潜在机制并找到其预后生物标志物。目前的研究表明，SHMT2可能参与多种癌症。我们的研究通过Oncomine，Human Protein Atlas数据库和ULCAN数据库研究了SHMT2在肾癌中的表达。同时，我们通过cBioPortal在线工具发现了其共表达基因，并通过细胞转染，蛋白质印迹和qRT-PCR验证了它们在A498和ACHN细胞中的关系。除此之外，我们还通过Kaplan-Meier绘图仪数据库探索了它们在不同类型的肾癌患者中的预后价值。与正常肾脏组织相比，在7个肾脏癌数据集中发现SHMT2升高。对于癌症阶段，年龄和种族，通过挖掘UALCAN数据库，SHMT2的表达在不同组之间存在显着差异。SHMT2高表达与肾癌患者的整体生存不良有关。在所有共表达的基因中，NDUFA4L2和SHMT2具有很高的共表达效率。SHMT2过表达导致NDUFA4L2在mRNA和蛋白水平上的表达增加。像SHMT2一样，过表达的NDUFA4L2也与肾癌患者的整体生存期较差有关。基于以上结果，SHMT2过表达及其共表达的基因NDUFA4L2均与肾癌的预后相关。本研究可能有助于更好地了解SHMT2的临床意义，并为将来的肾癌治疗提供潜在的靶标。