Notch3 and Its Clinical Importance in Ovarian Cancer

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In the manuscript “Notch3 and its clinical importance in ovarian cancer”, the Authors analyzed Notch3 by using the databases (ONCOMINE, GEPIA, Human Protein Atlas, UALCAN, Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and LinkedOmics).

The manuscript is interesting, but I have minor comments and suggestions:

1. Please explain the abbreviations in the manuscript:

:     Abstract (WIZ, TET1, CHD4);

Page 2 - Nanog, Oct4, Klf4, Rif1, Sall4, NAC1, JAG;

Page 8 and 9 - Please explain the abbreviations of genes in Table 1 and Table 2;

 Page 11 - LUAD, TGCC, CSCC, UCEC, ACD, BIC, BLGG, ENTPD1, PCPG, TNFRSF14, HLA-E, CX3CL1, CCL15.

2. Page 5 - in the text “Our findings showed that Notch3 expression was positively correlated with patient age (Figure 3(b), p< 0.1) shows a negative association with the particular”.  

Are these results statistically significant?

3. Page 9 - in the text “The outcomes underscored a significant connection between elevated Notch3 mRNA levels and enhanced overall survival (p<0.5), as well as disease-free survival (p<0.5) as illustrated in Figure 5(a) and (b)”.

Are these results statistically significant?

4. In my opinion, Authors should also include in the manuscript information about the period in which they used the various databases (access to databases) on which the Figures were based.

5. Arrange the Figures in the correct order - In the manuscript, first there is a description of Figure 9, and then there is a description of Figure 8.

6. Page 14 - there is no information about Author Contributions, as well as regarding the lack of a Conflict of interest.

Author Response

Comment 1:

Please decrease the similarity rate:
We noticed that some paragraphs in the manuscript have a high similarity rate to other publications which are highlighted. Please revise it.

Author’s Response:

Thank you for pointing this out. We agree with the comment and therefore have modified the plagiarism issue as highlighted in red color in the respective paragraph as suggested.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal disease in women, and Notch3 is found to be overexpressed in OC. In previous literatures, researchers have found the relationship between the Notch3 signaling and OC. In this work, the authors investigated the potential of Notch3 as a biomarker in OC. They employed a series of approaches to provide a preliminary proof of concept for the biomarker potential of Notch3. Recently, several reports also propose that the Notch-related changes could be useful diagnostic biomarkers (e.g., doi: 10.3390/ijms24065854; 10.31083/j.fbl2809220.). Therefore, the novelty of this research is not much high. Before publication, some revisions should be addressed as follow.

 

1.      More recent literatures for Notch3 in OC should be cited.

2.      Notch3 also plays key roles in the tumorigenesis and prognosis of several other cancers, so its biomarker role in OC may be unspecific. So the authors may comment on whether the combination of Notch3 and other genes could be specific for OC diagnosis.

3.      In Figure 3, the words of “NOTCH3 in OV” should be marked incorrectly, and the resolution of figures should be improved.

4.      There are some grammar and form errors for correction.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The writing should be improved, and there are some grammar errors.

Author Response

Comment :

Please revise the Data Availability Statement:
Please carefully revise the Data Availability Statement at the Back Matter of your manuscript according to our journal guidelines.

Author’s Response:

We thank the reviewer for this suggestion. We have added the Data availability statement at the end of the manuscript (at page no. 13) as “The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.”

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf