Transcriptome alterations in the aging lung and its relation to lung Cancer

Abstract

During aging, the morphofunctional impairment of lung tissue favors the development of chronic diseases, including lung cancer (LC). In the world and in Brazil, LC is the malignant neoplasm with the highest incidence and mortality in men and women. The relationship between the pulmonary aging process and the development of LC has not been elucidated. Therefore, it is necessary to perform studies that address LC and its interaction with aging. In this study, we propose to evaluate the transcriptional profile of the aging lung, comparing it with the most prevalent type of LC; Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC). Our aim will be to investigate the biological processes involved in aging and cancer and map the gene interaction networks involved, common and different between the two processes (aging and cancer). The proposed analyzes will use NSCLC transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) data, publicly available in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/) and RNA-Seq data from lung tissues available in the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database (https://gtexportal.org/home/). GTEx data cover normal lung tissues from individuals of different age groups: 20-29 years (will be used as controls) and 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79 (observation groups). Additionally, validation of results in other databases will be performed. For validation, we will use data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/). The identification of enriched biological functions will use the EnrichR bioinformatics tool (https://maayanlab.cloud/Enrichr/). The proposed project should elucidate transcriptomic alterations with a biological role related to the aging processes of lung and pulmonary carcinogenesis.(AU)