CXCR4 is Involved in the Regulation of the Functions of c-Src in RCC Development

Abstract

Renal cell carcinoma is a common malignant urinary tumor and CXCR4 plays an important role in the development of renal cell carcinoma. However, the role of c-Src gene in the development of renal cell carcinoma is still unclear. In this study, we found that CXCR4 can directly bind to SRC and CXCR4 is involved in the regulation of c-Src expression. C-Src is highly expressed in renal cell carcinoma and promotes cell division, proliferation, invasion and reduces apoptosis in renal cell carcinoma. Highly expressed c-Src is associated with poor prognosis in patients with RCC, and affects the infiltration of CD4+ T cells and macrophages in the tumor microenvironment. In addition, high SRC expression is associated with the expression of multiple immune checkpoints, high tumor mutation burden and high microsatellite instability which indicates the potential of SRC to predict the response to the immune checkpoint block therapy.