Abstract
The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC), as well as subsequent patient mortality, has increased in the last decade; an unhealthy diet is considered to be the leading cause. Previous studies have shown the potential of the bromodomain containing 1 (BRD1) gene as a therapeutic target for CRC based on its specificity; however, the genetic mode of action and expression in CRC cells are yet to be investigated. In this study, target genes were screened from single-cell transcriptome sequencing data, and the collected clinical specimens were subjected to immunohistochemistry (IHC) to identify the protein expression of target genes; the results were verified in the GSE17536 array set. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) and overall survival (OS) were used to test target genes as biomarkers and independent predictive markers for CRC. Based on these results, BRD1 was screened as a target gene, and IHC results showed that BRD1 protein expression in CRC was higher than that in normal tissues and was significantly upregulated in poorly differentiated (PD) CRC. ROC analysis showed that the area under the curve in the collected clinical specimens and GSE17536 were 0.6062 and 0.6094, respectively. OS analysis showed that higher BRD1 protein expression was associated with a significantly shorter survival time. In conclusion, BRD1 expression was positively correlated with PD CRC and negatively correlated with OS, indicating that BRD1 could predict the differentiation state of CRC and may be a novel predictive biomarker.