ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Computational Genomics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1595456
Identification of Key Ferroptosis-Related Genes and therapeutic target in nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Information and Management, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
- 2Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Regional High Incidence Cancer Early Prevention Research, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
- 3State Key Laboratory of Targeting Oncology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China., Nanning, China
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Objective: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant tumor, but the role of ferroptosis-related genes in NPC remains unclear. This study aimed to identify ferroptosis-related therapeutic targets and explore their mechanisms in NPC.Method: NPC datasets and ferroptosis-related genes were obtained from GEO and FerrDB, respectively. Ferroptosis-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) was used to pinpoint disease-related genes. Four machine learning algorithms screened hub genes, validated by ROC curves. Functional enrichment (GSEA, GSVA), drug prediction (DGIdb), immune infiltration analysis (CIBERSORT), and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) were performed.Result: From 3405 DEGs, 90 ferroptosis-related genes were identified, enriched in ferroptosis, IL-17, and p53 signaling pathways. WGCNA revealed 34 disease-related genes, and four hub genes (TBK1, KIF20A, SLC16A1, QSOX1) were selected, showing high diagnostic efficacy. GSEA/GSVA highlighted pathway differences between high/low expression groups. Eleven potential drugs were predicted, and immune analysis indicated increased macrophage M1 and neutrophil infiltration. scRNA-seq validated hub gene expression profiles.This study identified four ferroptosis hub genes in NPC, offering insights into its molecular mechanisms and potential diagnostic/therapeutic targets.
Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, ferroptosis, Immune infiltration, Drug prediction, Enrichment analysis
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gu, Zhou, Xie, He and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Guangyao He, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Regional High Incidence Cancer Early Prevention Research, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
Maosheng Zhang, School of Information and Management, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
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