Abstract
To find genes involved in tumorigenesis and the development of esophageal cancer, the suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) method was used to identify genes that are overexpressed in esophageal cancer tissues compared to normal esophageal tissues. In our SSH library, the forkhead box O3 (FOXO3), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), and myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MYD88) genes were the most highly upregulated genes, and they were selected for further studies because of their potential role in the induction of autophagy. Upregulation of these genes was also observed in clinical samples using qRT-PCR. In addition, coexpression analysis of the autophagy-related genes Beclin1, ATG12, Gabarapl, PIK3C3, and LC3 demonstrated a significant correlation between the differentially overexpressed genes and autophagy. Autophagy is an important mechanism in tumorigenesis and the development of chemoresistance in cancer cells. The upregulation of FOXO3, GAPDH, and MYD88 variants in esophageal cancer suggests a role for autophagy and provides new insight into the biology of esophageal cancer. We propose that FOXO3, GAPDH, and MYD88 are novel targets for combating autophagy in esophageal cancer.