Transcriptome Analysis in Patients With Muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer

Abstract

Background/aim: Bladder cancer (BC) is the most prevalent malignant tumor in the urinary tract, classified mainly into muscle-invasive BC (MIBC) and non-MIBC (NMIBC). Recent studies highlight the important role of changes in transcriptome activity in carcinogenesis, aiding in the identification of additional differentially regulated candidate genes, improving our understanding of the molecular basis of gene regulation in BC. This study aimed to evaluate the transcriptome of MIBC patients compared with normal subjects.

Materials and methods: mRNA sequencing was conducted using the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 Dx system in a case series comprising 11 subjects with MIBC and 19 healthy controls matched for age and sex. For functional analysis, the pathfindR package was utilized to comprehensively identify pathways enriched in omics data within active subnetworks.

Results: Our results demonstrated the presence of differentiated pathways, including spliceosome activity, oxidative phosphorylation, and chemical carcinogenesis due to reactive oxygen species, in MIBC patients compared with controls.

Conclusion: The identification of novel molecular pathways in MIBC patients could prove useful in defining cancer predisposition factors and exploring potential therapeutic options.

Keywords: Muscle-invasive bladder cancer; mRNA sequencing; oxidative phosphorylation; spliceosome activity.