Despite recent advancements, glioma prognosis remains poor, with a median survival of 15 months with a high relapse rate. Thus, the current study aimed to shed light on identifying prospective candidate hub genes as potential biomarkers related to the pathogenesis of gliomas. The integrative pipeline, including quality control, normalization, principal component analysis (PCA), and immunohistochemistry, identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were then validated. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analysis were utilized to functionally elucidate the hub genes. Interestingly, the present study identified novel hub genes such as TP53, SRC, UBA52, UBB, and CDK1. Of note, ours is the first report on the UBA52 and UBB which unveils the use of these hub genes as potential biomarkers. These genes were mainly involved in crucial oncological pathways that annotated their resemblance with glioma. Finally, potential candidate drugs were predicted against three key gene targets, namely TP53, SRC and CDK1, using the DGIdb database to manage glioblastoma effectively. Indeed, we believe that the exploration of UBB and UBA52 would present exciting opportunities for scientific advancement in the field of glioma treatment strategy. Overall, the results from our study provide a new avenue for the precise understanding of prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers that could serve as specific therapeutic targets for averting gliomagenesis in the near future.
Poornimaa et al. (2026) studied this question.