Predictive value of procollagen c-protease enhancer protein on the prognosis of glioma patients

Abstract

Procollagen c-protease enhancer protein (PCOLCE) performs an essential action in improving the recreation of procollagen c-protease and promoting the reconstruction of extracellular matrix. High PCOLCE expression was associated with a negative prognosis of stomach cancer, ovarian cancer, and osteosarcoma. The goal of this work is to investigate the function of PCOLCE in glioma. Multiple bioinformatics techniques have been employed to investigate the roles of PCOLCE in glioma, consisting of the correlation between PCOLCE and prognosis, immune checkpoints, immune cell infiltrates, and tumor microenvironment (TME). The gene ontology (GO) annotations and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were used to assess the potential function of PCOLCE in glioma. PCOLCE was found to be increased in glioma. We revealed that PCOLCE was a potential prognostic factor and related to tumor grade. Up-regulated PCOLCE was related to poor prognosis in lower-grade glioma (LGG), glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), and recurrent glioma. PCOLCE was correlated with immune cell infiltration, particularly B cells, CD4+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells (DCs) in LGG, and DCs infiltration in GBM. PCOLCE was co-expressed with many genes related to the immune and the immune checkpoint. In addition, glioma patients with low expression of PCOLCE had a higher response to the immunological checkpoint blockade (ICB). Additionally, PCOLCE may exert its roles via several immune-related biological processes or pathways, such as leukocyte migration, activation of T cells, adaptive immune response, neutrophil-mediated immunity, NF-κB, and TNF signaling pathways. In conclusion, PCOLCE may be a new immune-related gene and regulate tumor development through immunological pathways.