RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Identification of hub genes and their novel diagnostic and prognostic significance in pancreatic adenocarcinoma JF Cancer Biology & Medicine JO Cancer Biology & Medicine FD China Anti-Cancer Association SP 1029 OP 1046 DO 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2020.0516 VO 19 IS 7 A1 Duo Zuo A1 Yongzi Chen A1 Xinwei Zhang A1 Zhuozhi Wang A1 Wenna Jiang A1 Fan Tang A1 Runfen Cheng A1 Yi Sun A1 Lu Sun A1 Li Ren A1 Rui Liu YR 2022 UL http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/19/7/1029.abstract AB Objective: The main reasons for the poor prognoses of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) patients are rapid early-stage progression, advanced stage metastasis, and chemotherapy resistance. Identification of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of PA is therefore urgently needed.Methods: Three mRNA microarray datasets were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database to select differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses for hub genes were performed using DAVID. Correlations between expression levels of hub genes and cancer-infiltrating immune cells were investigated by TIMER. Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were also performed. Serum hub genes were screened using the HPA platform and verified for diagnostic value using ELISAs.Results: We identified 59 hub genes among 752 DEGs. GO analysis indicated that these 59 hub genes were mainly involved in the defense response to viruses and the type I interferon signaling pathway. We also discovered that RSAD2 and SMC4 were associated with immune cell infiltration in the PA microenvironment. Additionally, DLGAP5 mRNA might be used as an independent risk factor for the prognoses of PA patients. Furthermore, the protein encoded by ISG15, which exists in peripheral blood, was validated as a potential diagnostic biomarker that distinguished PA patients from healthy controls (area under the curve: 0.902, 95% confidence interval: 0.819–0.961).Conclusions: Our study suggested that RSAD2 and SMC4 were associated with immune cell infiltration in the PA microenvironment, while DLGAP5 mRNA expression might be an independent risk factor for the survival prognoses of PA patients. Moreover, ELISAs indicated that serum ISG15 could be a potential novel diagnostic biomarker for PA.