ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Cancer Genetics and Oncogenomics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1680674
This article is part of the Research TopicHistological and Molecular Subtypes of Prostate Cancer: Biology, Biomarkers, and Therapeutic ImplicationsView all articles
HSPB8: a Potential Biomarker for Prostate Cancer Recognition of HSPB8 as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Prostate Cancer
Provisionally accepted
- Peking Union Medical College Hospital (CAMS), Beijing, China
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ABSTRACT Prostate cancer poses a serious burden on men's quality of life. Identifying novel biomarkers for therapeutic development and prognostic prediction has long been a focal point in prostate cancer research. HSP family is a group of molecular chaperones that exhibit close relationship with many cancer types. In this study we screened out HSPB8 as a potential biomarker using WGCNA. Then we analyzed its expression patterns, investigated its biological functions, and assessed its prognostic values with a combination of bioinformatic analyses and experimental validation. Our data demonstrated that HSPB8 exhibited lower expression levels in prostate cancer tissues than in normal prostatic tissues. As a tumor suppressor gene, lack of HSPB8 was associated with unfavorable survival outcomes among patients with prostate cancer. In terms of biological function, HSPB8 were predominantly enriched in muscle-related biological processes, such as muscle contraction and muscle cell differentiation. On the molecular and cellular levels, HSPB8 silencing induced cellular proliferation and enhanced invasive and migratory capacities of prostate cancer cell lines. Its tumor-suppressive function was likely mediated through inactivation of PI3K−AKT signaling. Overall, this study offers a new understanding into the pathogenesis of prostate cancer, proposing that targeting HSPB8 might be a promising area in prostate cancer treatment.
Keywords: HSPB8, prostate cancer, WGCNA, survival-related gene, AKT-mTORsignaling
Received: 06 Aug 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fu, Wang and Li. 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: Hongjun Li, lihongjun@pumch.cn
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