Abstract
Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is a prevalent and aggressive form of cancer that necessitates the identification of robust biomarkers for early diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, this project was launched to identify a few key biomarkers from CC and CXC chemokine families for the accurate detection of COAD. Hub gene identification was performed using CytoHubba analysis. Clinical samples from COAD patients and normal individuals were collected and subjected to appropriate methods for DNA and RNA extraction. The expression levels of hub genes were analyzed using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), while promoter methylation analysis was conducted using targeted bisulfite sequencing (bisulfite-seq). Additionally, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets were utilized to validate the findings based on clinical samples. CXCL10 (C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10), CXCL12 (C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 12), CXCL16 (C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 16), and CCL25 (CC motif chemokine ligand 25) were denoted as the key hubs among CC and CXC chemokine families. Through RT-qPCR analysis, it was found that CXCL10, CXCL12, and CXCL16 were significantly up-regulated, while CCL25 was down-regulated in COAD patients compared to healthy controls. Later on, these findings were also validated using TCGA and GEO datasets consisting of COAD and normal control samples. Furthermore, we investigated the promoter methylation status of these chemokine genes in COAD patients. Our results revealed significant dysregulation of promoter methylation, suggesting an epigenetic mechanism underlying the altered expression of CXCL10, CXCL12, CXCL16, and CCL25 in COAD. In addition to this, various additional aspects of the CCL25, CXCL10, CXCL12, and CXCL16 have also been uncovered in COAD during the present study. This study highlights the dysregulation of CXCL10, CXCL12, CXCL16, and CCL25 chemokine members in COAD patients, emphasizing their significance as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the management of this deadly disease. However, further investigations are warranted to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms and evaluate the clinical utility of these findings.