Centromere proteins (CENPs) are the main constituent proteins of kinetochore, which are essential for cell division. In recent years, several studies have revealed that several CENPs were aberrantly expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, numerous centromere proteins have not been studied in HCC. In this study, we used databases of Oncomine, Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), the Kaplan-Meier Plotter, cBioPortal, the Human Protein Atlas (HPA), and TIMER (Tumor Immune Estimation Resource) and immunohistochemical staining of clinical specimens to investigate the expression of 15 major centromere proteins in HCC to evaluate their potential prognostic value. We found that the mRNA levels of 4 out of 15 centromere proteins (CENPL, CENPQ, CENPR, and CENPU) were significantly higher in HCC than in normal tissues, and their mRNA levels were associated with the tumor stages ( values < 0.01). Patients with higher mRNA levels of CENPL had poorer overall survival, progression-free survival, relapse-free survival, and disease-specific survival ( values < 0.05). Furthermore, the higher levels of CENPL mRNA were associated with worse overall survival in males without hepatitis virus infection ( values < 0.05). The protein expression level of CENPL in human HCC tissue was higher than that in normal liver tissue. In addition, the expression of CENPL was positively correlated with the levels of the tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. The results suggest that the high mRNA expression of CENPL may be a potential predictor of prognosis in HCC patients.

中文翻译：

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CENPL mRNA高表达及其在肝细胞癌患者预后中的意义

着丝粒蛋白 (CENPs) 是动粒的主要组成蛋白，对细胞分裂至关重要。近年来，多项研究表明，几种 CENPs 在肝细胞癌 (HCC) 中异常表达。然而，许多着丝粒蛋白尚未在 HCC 中进行研究。在这项研究中，我们使用了 Oncomine、基因表达谱交互分析 (GEPIA)、Kaplan-Meier Plotter、cBioPortal、人类蛋白质图谱 (HPA) 和 TIMER（肿瘤免疫估计资源）数据库以及临床标本的免疫组化染色，研究 15 种主要着丝粒蛋白在 HCC 中的表达，以评估其潜在的预后价值。我们发现 HCC 中 15 种着丝粒蛋白中的 4 种（CENPL、CENPQ、CENPR 和 CENPU）的 mRNA 水平显着高于正常组织，值 < 0.01)。CENPL mRNA水平较高的患者总生存期、无进展生存期、无复发生存期和疾病特异性生存期较差（值<0.05）。此外，较高水平的CENPL mRNA 与未感染肝炎病毒的男性总体存活率较差相关（值 < 0.05）。CENPL在人HCC组织中的蛋白表达水平高于正常肝组织。此外，CENPL的表达与肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞的水平呈正相关。结果表明，CENPL的高 mRNA 表达可能是 HCC 患者预后的潜在预测因子。