Abstract
BackgroundProtein-coding gene LIM Domain Kinase 1 (LIMK1) is upregulated in various tumors and reported to promote tumor invasion and metastasis. However, the prognostic values of LIMK1 and correlation with immune infiltrates in lung adenocarcinoma are still not understood. Therefore, we evaluated the prognostic role of LIMK1 and its correlation with immune infiltrates in lung adenocarcinoma.MethodsTranscriptional expression profiles of LIMK1 between lung adenocarcinoma tissues and normal tissues were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The LIMK1 protein expression was assessed by the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) and the Human Protein Atlas. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to differentiate lung adenocarcinoma from adjacent normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier method was conducted to assess the effect of LIMK1 on survival. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed by the STRING. Functional enrichment analyses were performed using the “ClusterProfiler” package. The relationship between LIMK1 mRNA expression and immune infiltrates was determined by tumor immune estimation resource (TIMER) and tumor-immune system interaction database (TISIDB).ResultsThe expression of LIMK1 in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly upregulated than those in adjacent normal tissues. Increased LIMK1 mRNA expression was associated with lymph node metastases and high TNM stage. The ROC curve analysis showed that with a cutoff level of 4.908, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for LIMK1 differentiate lung adenocarcinoma from adjacent controls were 69.5, 93.2, and 71.9%, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed lung adenocarcinoma patients with high- LIMK1 had a worse prognosis than those with low- LIMK1 (43.1 vs. 55.1 months, P = 0.028). Correlation analysis indicated LIMK1 mRNA expression was correlated with tumor purity and immune infiltrates.ConclusionUpregulated LIMK1 is significantly correlated with poor survival and immune infiltrates in lung adenocarcinoma. Our study suggests that LIMK1 can be used as a biomarker of poor prognosis and potential immune therapy target in lung adenocarcinoma.
Highlights
Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors around the world and the leading cause for cancer-related death (Jemal et al, 2011)
We evaluated the prognostic role of LIM Domain Kinase 1 (LIMK1) in lung adenocarcinoma based on data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)
To evaluate the mRNA expression pattern of LIMK1 across different cancer types, we excluded from the analysis the datasets from 15 cancer types that contained less than five samples in the normal group
Summary
Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors around the world and the leading cause for cancer-related death (Jemal et al, 2011). The incidence of lung cancer has steadily increased over recent years. Lung cancer remains refractory and the 5-year survival rate continues to be the lowest among the major cancers. It is speculated that numerous people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in the future, which bring a heavy economic burden to our society (Torre et al, 2016; Albaba et al, 2017). Despite many therapeutic endeavors has been made in lung adenocarcinoma, such as targeted therapy and immunotherapy, the survival rate remains bleak and staggers at about 20% 5 years after treatment (Hirsch et al, 2017). The prognostic values of LIMK1 and correlation with immune infiltrates in lung adenocarcinoma are still not understood. We evaluated the prognostic role of LIMK1 and its correlation with immune infiltrates in lung adenocarcinoma
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