3 | RESULTS
3.1 | Aberrant
overexpression of UHRF1 in PCa tissues and promoted PCa progression
To assess whether UHRF1 is associated with PCa progression, we compared
their expression levels in tumoral and normal tissues using TCGA
database. The UHRF1 mRNA level was dramatically up-regulated in PCa
tissues (n=481) compared with normal tissues (n = 51)
(P<0.0001) (Fig. 1a), and the mRNA level of UHRF1 was
positively correlated with the TNM stages of PCa (Fig.1b). More
importantly, Knockdown of UHRF1 in PCa cells with siRNAs reduced the
number of cells clonogenicity, suggesting that UHRF1 plays an important
role in tumor growth and progression (Fig.1c). We further analyzed the
correlation of UHRF1 mRNA level with the morbidity of PCa patients, and
the diagnostic value of UHRF1 upregulation for PCa was confirmed by ROC
curves (AUC= 0.747, P<0.0001) (Fig. 1d). Finally, we analyzed
the correlation between UHRF1 mRNA levels and PCa patient
recurrence-free survival (RFS), the results showed that the mRNA level
of UHRF1 was negatively correlated with RFS (Fig.1e). All these results
confirmed the oncogene role of UHRF1, which contributes to the
tumorigenesis and progression of PCa.