In Vivo. 2026 Jan-Feb;40(1):123-135. doi: 10.21873/invivo.14178.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/AIM: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is an aggressive cancer type with high mortality rates. The Argonaute (AGO) gene/protein family is an evolutionary conserved family, which is responsible for post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Despite the fact that this family members (AGO1-4) have been linked to prognosis in some cancers, they have not been comprehensively investigated in PAAD. Therefore, this study investigates the role of AGO family members on PAAD.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In our research, bioinformatics analyses were performed to study gene, protein and methylation levels, prognostic importance, gene-gene and protein-protein interactions, enrichment analysis, and immune infiltration analysis, using online and publicly available platforms. Additionally, real-time PCR was used to check mRNA levels in the pancreatic cell line BxPC-3.
RESULTS: mRNA (p<0.05), protein (p<0.001) and methylation (p<0.001) levels of AGO2 were statistically different between normal and tumor samples in the in silico and laboratory analyses, and high AGO2 levels were found to be linked to poor prognosis (p=0.037). Additionally, immune infiltration analysis demonstrated a close relationship between AGO2 mRNA expression and immune cells. In contrast to the consistent results of AGO2, other AGO family members (AGO1, AGO3, or AGO4) differed at the protein or methylation levels but had non-significant prognostic values.
CONCLUSION: The findings of this study indicate the potential importance of AGO2 in terms of biological functions and prognostication in PAAD.
PMID:41482412 | DOI:10.21873/invivo.14178
