Hacia la comprensión del papel del metabolismo de la creatina (dos genes relacionados) en el cáncer: un análisis bioinformático

Abstract

Creatine metabolism has been proposed as a noteworthy mechanism for cell survival and growth considering that the creatine kinase (CK)/phosphocreatine (PCr) system behaves as a hub of chemo-mechanical energy transduction during a given allodynamic process. This study conducted a bioinformatics analysis to investigate the role of creatine metabolism-related genes in cancer. The analysis encompassed functional enrichment analysis, prognostic potential assessment in various cancer types, examination of gene expression profiles, methylation status, and mutation status. Some genes exhibited low hazard ratios or even negative hazard ratios, implying potential irrele-vance or a protective effect against cancer. For example, CKB in pancreatic cancer showed a protec-tive effect. In colon cancer, no significant differences were found in gene expression between meta-static and non-metastatic conditions, although GAMT and GATM displayed increased expression. Methylation analysis indicated hypermethylation of the CKB promoter and hypomethylation of the GATM promoter. No mutations, copy number variations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms were detected in the analyzed genes. Survival analysis revealed that high GAMT expression was associ-ated with worse prognosis, while high CKB expression correlated with a better prognosis in certain cancers. However, CKM did not demonstrate prognostic potential. The meta-analysis of differen-tially expressed genes showed no significant differences in creatine metabolism-related genes be-tween tumor and normal colon samples although CKB was found to be over-represented in healthy samples. Overall, this study sheds light on the functional characteristics and prognostic implications of creatine metabolism-related genes in cancer, underscoring the need for further investigation into their precise mechanisms and potential therapeutic implications.