| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as a chronic lung disease with two common types, emphysema
and chronic bronchitis, is a key factor in lung cancer development which mostly appears in tobacco smoking
people, hence the necessity of an early detection protocol for COPD patients based on genome-wide association
studies. The NCBI-GEO database was systematically searched for COPD smoking patients with available mRNA
datasets. A meta-analysis of gene expression data was performed to identify the significant genes among extracted GEO datasets while considering the genes involved in the Wnt signaling pathway. To further validate the
target gene, the Kaplan-Meier (KM) tool was utilized for assessing three types of survival rates, namely first
progression (FP), overall survival (OS), and post progression survival (PPS).The obtained results showed that
JUN gene was significantly over-expressed among the GEO datasets (p-value < 0.05) between COPD smoking
and normal smoking patients. Further assessment using KM tool presented the significant role of JUN gene in
lung cancer development, while FP and OS were also studied. However, the expression of JUN was not significant regarding PPS rate. Based on the outcomes of the current study, genome wide association studies are
highly recommended for an early diagnosis of COPD. Noticeably, novel therapeutic agents can be developed
through understanding the cellular functions in the Wnt signaling pathway. |