Purpose: We explored specific expression profiles of BGN  and COL11A1  genes and studied their biological functions in CRC using bioinformatics tools.
Patients and Methods: A total of 68 pairs of cancer and non-cancerous tissues from CRC patients were enrolled in this study. Methods we used in this articles including: qRT-PCR, Western blot analysis, ELISA, GO and KEGG regulatory network analysis, tumor infiltration, luciferase reporter-based protein and etc.
Results: According to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data, BGN  and COL11A1  expression levels were significantly higher in CRC patient samples than in samples from healthy controls. Moreover, levels were much higher in late-stage CRC than in early-stage disease, warranting evaluation of these genes as CRC prognostic biomarkers. Subsequently, qRT-PCR, Western blot analysis, and ELISA results obtained from analyses of CRC cells, tissues, and patient sera aligned with TCGA results. GO and KEGG regulatory network analysis revealed BGN-  and COL11A1- associated genes that were functionally related to extracellular matrix (ECM) receptor pathway activation, with transcription factor genes RELA  and NFKB1  positively associated with BGN  expression and CEBPZ  and SIRT1  with COL11A1  expression. Meanwhile, BGN  and COL11A1  expression were separately and significantly correlated to tumor infiltration by six immune cell types. Additionally, kinase genes PLK1  and LYN  appeared to be downstream targets of differentially expressed BGN  and COL11A1 , respectively. In addition, the expression of PLK1  mRNA was down-regulated while BGN  was down-regulated. Finally, BGN  effects on CRC cell proliferation, cycle, apoptosis, invasion, and migration were studied using molecular biological methods, including luciferase reporter-based protein analysis, qRT-PCR, and Western blot results, which revealed that miR-6828-5p may regulate BGN  expression.
Conclusion: We speculate that the use of BGN  and COL11A1  as CRC biomarkers would improve CRC staging, while also providing several novel targets for use in the development of more effective CRC treatments.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, COL11A1 , BGN , PLK-1 , miR-6828-5p