Estrogen receptor 1 and Aurora kinase A as potential diagnostic biomarkers for cervical cancer

Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most common cause of death among women globally. Nearly 90% of CC mortality occurs in low- and middle-income countries. Hence there is an urgent need for identification of new biomarkers for the early diagnosis and treatment of CC. Current research aims to investigate the effect and mechanism of estrogen receptor 1 and aurora kinase A as potential diagnostic biomarkers for cervical cancer. Gene microarray datasets GSE8703 and GSE9750 were acquired from the Gene Set Omnibus and evaluated using GEO2R to identify the differentially expressed genes. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses of the differentially expressed genes were performed using the clusterProfiler R package. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) and visualized using Cytoscape; hub genes were screened using the cytoHubba plug-in. Receiver operating characteristic curve and survival analysis was performed for candidate genes in the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis Database. The University of California, Santa Cruz, (UCSC)-XENA platform was used to analyze the pan-cancer biomarker expression. The relative expression of biomarkers in normal and cervical cancer tissues was determined using the Human Protein Atlas Database. Estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) and Aurora kinase A (AURKA) were identified as potential biomarkers for cervical cancer. ESR1 was actively expressed in normal cervical tissues but limited in cervical cancer tissues. AURKA was least expressed in normal tissues and highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues. The results were confirmed by immunohistochemistry. The biomarkers identified herein can enable early diagnosis and serve as the therapeutic targets for cervical cancer.