Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42744971›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2026

Integrated expression profiling reveals molecular crosstalk between CFTR, FASN, FRAP (mTOR), and BANK1 in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Seyyedha Abbas, Fizzah Abid, Tahir Mehmood, Sadia Fatima, Janeen H Trembley, Rubina Nazli, Hafsa Aziz, Ali Abusharha, Tayyaba Afsar, Suhail Razak

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Article in Scientific reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Seyyedha AbbasDepartment of Biochemistry, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, 25121, Pakistan.
Fizzah AbidDepartment of Biomedicine, Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB), National, University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
Tahir MehmoodSchool of Natural Sciences, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
Sadia FatimaDepartment of Biochemistry, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, 25121, Pakistan. sadiafatima@kmu.edu.pk.
Janeen H TrembleyMinneapolis VA Health Care System Research Service, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Rubina NazliDepartment of Biochemistry, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, 25121, Pakistan.
Hafsa AzizAtomic Energy Cancer Hospital, NORI, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Ali AbusharhaDepartment of Optometry, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Tayyaba AfsarDepartment of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Suhail RazakDepartment of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. smarazi@ksu.edu.sa.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy characterised by molecular heterogeneity and poor prognosis. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in the expression of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR), Fatty Acid Synthase (FASN), FKBP12-rapamycin-associated protein (FRAP; mTOR), and B-cell scaffold protein with ankyrin repeats 1 (BANK1) between HCC patients and controls. A total of 200 blood samples (100 from HCC patients and 100 from controls) were analysed using Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), with Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) used as an internal control. The results demonstrated significant upregulation of FASN and FRAP (mTOR) (p < 0.0001) and downregulation of CFTR and BANK1 (p < 0.0001), suggesting potential oncogenic and tumour-suppressive roles, respectively. Gene expression levels also differed significantly across Stages I, II, III, and IV. The Ct values for BANK1 were higher than those for CFTR, FASN, and FRAP (mTOR). Because the expression measurements for the four genes were obtained from blood rather than tumour parenchyma, these findings were not interpreted as direct evidence of gene expression within tumour tissue. Survival analysis using a public dataset revealed that dysregulation of these genes was associated with lower survival rates. In silico pathway analysis demonstrated complex interactions among the four genes, linking them to metabolic regulation, immune signalling, and cellular proliferation pathways. Overall, the integrated network involving CFTR, FASN, FRAP (mTOR), and BANK1 may have potential as a novel prognostic marker by reflecting combined metabolic and immune pathway activity. A combined four-gene logistic regression model demonstrated promising discriminative performance in the present cohort (AUC = 0.89). However, this finding requires validation in independent cohorts before any diagnostic application can be considered.

Indexed as

Carcinoma, HepatocellularCystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance RegulatorFatty Acid Synthase, Type ILiver NeoplasmsMembrane ProteinsTOR Serine-Threonine KinasesAgedFemaleGene Expression ProfilingGene Expression Regulation, NeoplasticHumansMaleMiddle AgedPrognosisCFTR protein, humanCystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance RegulatorFASN protein, humanFatty Acid Synthase, Type IMembrane ProteinsMTOR protein, humanTOR Serine-Threonine Kinases

Identifiers

PMID42744971
PMCPMC13578444

What Socratic holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.