SLC17A2 Expression Correlates with Prognosis and Immune Infiltrates in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Zheng Jiang,Xuenuo Chen,Zhijian Wang

doi:10.2174/1386207325666220126104358

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors with a dismal prognosis, according to updated statistics. The solute carrier family 17 member 2 (SLC17A2) has not been studied in liver cancer. Therefore, we evaluated the role of SLC17A2 in HCC by bioinformatics analysis. The objective of the study was to explore the value of SLC17A2 in the prognosis and diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. The expression level of SLC17A2 in HCC and the clinicopathological data were analyzed based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases and validated by immunohistochemical staining. In addition, the Kaplan-Meier plotter database and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to explore the prognostic and diagnostic significance. Some online databases were used to analyze the relationship between immune cell infiltration and analyze the relationship between immune cell infiltration and SLC17A2 in HCC. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that SLC17A2 expression was low in HCC (P < 0.05) and closely related to the clinical stage of HCC. In addition, SLC17A2 had a certain diagnostic value in HCC according to ROC curve analysis. Further biological analyses showed that SLC17A2 can regulate fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism and cytochrome P450- related metabolism. Notably, we found that SLC17A2 expression was closely correlated with the infiltration of most immune cells in HCC. SLC17A2 expression is low in HCC and correlates with immune infiltration, so it may serve as an independent prognostic factor for HCC.

Highlights

According to the latest epidemiological statistics related to liver cancer, the incidence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks sixth in the world, and Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death
We found that SLC17A2 expression was positively correlated with the infiltration levels of CD4 + T cells, naive CD8+ T cells, naive B cells, negatively associated with the levels of regulatory T cells and closely correlated with most immune cell markers in HCC
We used the Oncomine database to explore the differential expression of SLC17A2 in 7 studies, and found that SLC17A2 expression was significantly lower in HCC tissues than in normal tissues (Fig. 2B)

Summary

Introduction

According to the latest epidemiological statistics related to liver cancer, the incidence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks sixth in the world, and HCC is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death. The incidence and mortality of liver cancer in rural residents were higher than those in city residents. The TNM staging system is widely used to evaluate the prognosis of patients, but the T stage of this system is controversial according to many surgeons. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors with a dismal prognosis according to updated statistics. The solute carrier family 17 member 2 (SLC17A2) has not been studied in liver cancer, we evaluate the role of SLC17A2 in HCC by bioinformatics analysis

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Results

Conclusion