SPTSSA is a Prognostic Marker for Glioblastoma Associated With Tumor Infiltrating Immune Cells

Abstract

SPTSSA encodes the small subunit A of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT). It catalyzes the formation of sphingoid long chain base backbone of sphingolipids. Its role in glioma prognosis and tumor infiltrating immune cells remains unclear. We analyzed SPTSSA expression and association with clinical prognosis using GEPIA and Kaplan-Meier plotter. GSEA was performed to identify relevant biological functions of SPTSSA. The correlations between SPTSSA expression and tumor immune infiltrates were investigated using CIBERSORT and TIMER. Of 33 tumor types analyzed, SPTSSA expression was significantly upregulated in diffuse glioma compared to normal tissues and associated with poor survival. We identified biological processes and signaling pathways associated with SPTSSA expression. Finally, we showed that SPTSSA expression was significantly associated with tumor-infiltrating immune cells and overall survival via Immunohistochemistry(IHC) and Immunofluorescence (IF). These findings suggest that SPTSSA expression might be used as a prognostic biomarker for glioma and potential target for novel glioma therapy. Funding Statement: The work was supported by the Science and Technology Projects of Nantong, Jiangsu, China (grant number MS12018003). Declaration of Interests: All authors declare no competing non-financial/financial interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The experimental protocol was established, according to the ethical guidelines of the Helsinki Declaration. Ethical permissions were granted by the Human Ethics Committee at Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University (No. 2018-K020). Written informed consent was obtained from individual or guardian participants.