Up-Regulation of SLC26A6 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Its Diagnostic and Prognostic Significance

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, which is globally the third most common cause of cancer-related mortality. This study aims to identify new potential early-stage diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for HCC. The candidate gene SLC26A6 expression was analyzed based on the Oncomine and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) databases and verified forwards with Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. The protein expression was retrieved from Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. We also validated the diagnostic and prognostic value in HCC, and the relationship between SLC26A6 and clinicopathologic parameters were also accessed. The Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network were constructed to analyze the SLC26A6-related pathway. These results reveal that SLC26A6 expression was elevated in HCC, and the diagnostic sensitivity of SLC26A6 was higher than α-fetoprotein (AFP). SLC26A6 expression was independent prognostic factor for HCC. SLC26A6 up-regulation was mainly associated with excision repair, DNA replication, etc. SLC26A6-related mR-NAs was enriched in PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, axon guidance, pathways in cancer, and so on. PPI network indicated that SLC26A6 was interacted with solute carrier members, ABC transporters and other ion transport molecule. We further analyzed three positively correlated microRNAs and 10 negatively correlated microRNAs, all of these were reported participating or inhibiting in cancer progression. This is the first study demonstrated that SLC26A6 is up-regulated in HCC and correlated with poor prognosis, which might be served as a diagnostic marker or prognostic biomarker for HCC.