Fig 2: Expression level of YBX3 gene in diverse tumors, normal tissues, and cell lines (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001). (A) YBX3 expression profile in unpaired samples among pan-cancer. (B) YBX3 expression in different normal tissues. (C) YBX3 expression in diverse cell lines of different organs. (D) YBX3 expression in The Cancer Genome Atlas tumors and corresponding adjacent normal tissues in paired samples. (E) YBX3 expression in some cancers using data from GTEx databases as controls. ns, non-significant.

Fig 3: Protein–protein interaction (PPI) network construction and Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HEIH/YBX3 high-expression and low-expression groups in COAD. (A) Volcano map of DEGs of HEIH expression in COAD (red: upregulation; blue: downregulation). (B) GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of DEGs of HEIH in the form of a chordal graph. (C, a) Hub genes of PPI network (ranking first) and MCODE2 components identified in the gene lists. (C, b) Enrichment analysis of the hub gene network. (D, a) Hub genes of PPI network (ranking second) and MCODE2 components identified in the gene lists. (D, b) Enrichment analysis of the hub gene network. (E, a) Hub genes of PPI network (ranking third) and MCODE2 components identified in the gene lists. (E, b) Enrichment analysis of the hub gene network. (F) Volcano map of DEGs of YBX3 expression in COAD (purple: upregulation; blue: downregulation). (G) GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of DEGs of YBX3 in the form of a chordal graph. (H, a) Hub genes of PPI network (ranking first) and MCODE2 components identified in the gene lists. (H, b) Enrichment analysis of the hub gene network. (I, a) Hub genes of PPI network (ranking second) and MCODE2 components identified in the gene lists. (I, b) Enrichment analysis of the hub gene network. (J, a) Hub genes of PPI network (ranking third) and MCODE2 components identified in the gene lists. (J, b) enrichment analysis of the hub gene network.

Fig 4: Associations between HEIH/YBX3 expression and the prognosis in different clinical subgroups of colon cancer. (A) Effect of YBX3 expression on colon cancer of higher pathological stage, cohorts of lymphatic invasion, and CEA >5. (B) Effect of HEIH expression on colon cancer of patients with residual tumor and perineural invasion.

Fig 5: Experimental verification of the combination and role of HEIH/YBX3 in colon cancer. (A) lncRNA HEIH pull-down. (B) Enrichment analysis of the pulled-down proteins. (C) Correlation between YBX3 expression in diverse clinical stages and prognosis in the colon cancer cohort. (D) HEIH expression level in various cancer stages quantified by qPCR. (E) YBX3 expression level in various cancer stages quantified by qPCR. (F) In SW620 cell line, lncRNA-HEIH knockdown enhanced the YBX3 expression confirmed by western blot. (G) Immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarray showing the YBX3 expression in different clinical pathological stages in magnifications of ×25, ×100, and ×200, respectively. *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ns, non-significant.