NEK2 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Subsequently, we employed the MCC algorithm to screen five hub genes with the strongest interactions: NEIL3, NEK2, KIF4A, TROAP, and FANCD2, all of which showed significant positive correlations with SF3B6 expression.NEIL3, a member of the DNA glycosylase family, plays a role in base damage repair and promotes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) advancement through mechanisms including telomere damage repair, enhanced phosphorylation of TWIST1, and activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway (Chen et al., 2022).