2. Academic Validation
  3. Identifying and validating PLAU as a potential prognostic biomarker for PDAC

Identifying and validating PLAU as a potential prognostic biomarker for PDAC

  • Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 11;15(1):12515. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-97629-5.
Peng An # 1,  Junhong Wang # 2,  Rong Fan 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Material Evidence Technology Center, School of Law, Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin, 300134, China. anpeng19831021@tjcu.edu.cn.
  • 2 School of Medical Technology, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 301617, China.
  • 3 Central Laboratory, Tianjin Xiqing hospital, Tianjin, 300380, PR China. prosperity_39@sina.cn.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 40216916 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-97629-5
Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a prevalent Cancer with a high mortality rate. This study aims to identify and validate biomarkers for early PDAC diagnosis. We employed the GEO2R online tool to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs), construct protein interaction networks, and perform functional enrichment analysis, survival prognosis analysis, and expression level validation. We identified 260 DEGs, comprising 165 upregulated genes and 95 downregulated genes. Following functional enrichment and survival analysis, we selected plasminogen activator urokinase (PLAU) for the RNA and protein level verification and preliminary cell phenotype analysis. We found that PLAU knockdown inhibits the proliferation and survival of pancreatic Cancer cells. Therefore, PLAU may serve as a potential biomarker, offering new strategies for understanding PDAC's pathological mechanisms.

Keywords

Bioinformatics analysis; Expression profile; Hub gene; PDAC; Prognosis.

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