Exploratory Multi-Platform Bioinformatic Analysis of MEAK7 and Its Molecular, Survival, and Immune Associations in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma
TL;DR
Elevated MEAK7 expression was elevated in pancreatic cancer compared with normal pancreatic tissues, was detectably expressed across multiple pancreatic cancer cell lines, and was increased in patient-derived PDAC samples.
Abstract
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with high mortality owing to late diagnosis, aggressive tumor biology, and limited clinically useful early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. This study provides an exploratory evaluation of the expression profile, survival associations, co-expressed genes, functional association networks, and regulatory relationships of MEAK7 (KIAA1609/TLDC1) in pancreatic cancer using multi-platform bioinformatic approaches. We conducted a comprehensive multi-platform bioinformatic analysis using multiple publicly available datasets and platforms, including TCGA/GTEx, GEO, GEPIA3, HPA, CPTAC/UALCAN, TNMplot, Kaplan–Meier Plotter, DoSurvive, TIMER 3.0, STRING, TargetScan, miRDB, ENCORI and lncRNADisease. Gene expression patterns, survival associations, immune cell infiltration and regulatory non-coding RNA networks were systematically investigated. A STRING-derived protein functional association network was evaluated. MEAK7 expression patterns were additionally assessed in external GEO datasets, including GSE62165, GSE71729, and GSE183795. In summary, MEAK7 expression was elevated in pancreatic cancer compared with normal pancreatic tissues, was detectably expressed across multiple pancreatic cancer cell lines, and was increased in patient-derived PDAC samples. ROC analysis showed that MEAK7 expression discriminated PDAC tumor tissues from adjacent non-tumor pancreatic tissues, with an AUC of 0.795 (95% CI: 0.719–0.871) indicating exploratory transcriptomic discrimination rather than clinical diagnostic performance. Exploratory survival analyses showed that elevated MEAK7 expression was associated with unfavorable overall survival and disease-free outcomes, while multivariable Cox analyses showed that this association persisted after adjustment for the covariates available within the analyzed dataset. GEO-based analyses supported increased MEAK7 expression in early-stage pancreatic cancer samples, although metastatic expression patterns varied across datasets. Correlation and interaction analyses revealed positive associations between MEAK7 and PDAC-related genes, including CTTN, CDCP1, SMARCA4, SFN, and PALB2, as well as high-confidence STRING functional associations with V-ATPase components and RNASEK. Furthermore, MEAK7 was positively correlated with lncRNA UCA1 and negatively correlated with miR-582-5p. Collectively, these findings identify reproducible expression and survival-associated patterns involving MEAK7 across the analyzed datasets and provide a hypothesis-generating framework for further investigation of its potential biological role in PDAC. Experimental studies and prospectively characterized patient cohorts are required before any clinical, prognostic, diagnostic, or therapeutic implications can be established.