Transcriptional Expression of Minichromosome Maintenance 10 as an Independent Negative Predictor of Survival in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract Background: The minichromosome maintenance protein 10 (MCM10) is a replication licensing factor that initiates eukaryotic genome replication by interacting with CDC45-MCM2-7 complex, thereby mediating cellular proliferation. Recent studies have found that MCM10 is involved in tumorigenesis and cancer development. However, research on the role of MCM10 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is scarce.Methods: In this study, the transcriptional expression, prognostic efficacy and function of MCM10 in HCC were explored through the public dadabases and bioinformatic tools, including ONCOMINE, Kaplan-Meier plotter, cBioPortal, TIMER and GEPIA. Statistical significance was inferred at a P-value < 0.05.Results: It was found that MCM10 expression was commonly overexpressed in cancer specimens compared to match normal tissues. Up-regulation of MCM10 gene in HCC had a close relationship with patients’ survival time. A higher level of MCM10 expression was correlated with shorter overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in HCC patients, especially at early stages (grade 2 or stage 1+2). MCM10 was also demonstrated to be an independent negative predictor of OS and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with HCC by multivariate Cox regression. Additionally, according to the levels of marker genes for different immune cells in HCC, MCM10 expression was markedly positively correlated with the numbers of tumor-infiltrating B cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils and dendritic cells, indicating its potential immunogenic role in HCC. Conclusions: MCM10 could be exploited as a potential independent prognostic indicator as well as therapeutic target for HCC patients.