Open AccessExpression of the HOXA gene family and its relationship to prognosis and immune infiltrates in cervical cancer
Author(s) -
Ge Fenfen,
Tie Weiwei,
Zhang Junli,
Zhu Yingying,
Fan Yingying
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of clinical laboratory analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1098-2825
pISSN - 0887-8013
DOI - 10.1002/jcla.24015
Subject(s) - cervical cancer , immune system , cancer , gene , gene family , medicine , biology , immunology , gene expression , genetics
Background The homeobox A cluster ( HOXA ) gene family is participated in multiple biological functions in human cancers. To date, little is known about the expression profile and clinical significance of HOXA genes in cervical cancer. Methods We downloaded RNASeq data of cervical cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The difference in HOXA family expression was analyzed using independent samples t test. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to assess the effect of HOXA family expression on survival, and a nomogram predicting survival was generated. We assessed the infiltration difference in immune cells and expression difference of immunity biomarkers between two groups with different expression level of HOXA genes through Immune Cell Abundance Identifier (ImmuCellAI) and independent samples t test, respectively. Results Our results showed that the HOXA1 gene was upregulated, while the HOXA10 and HOXA11 were downregulated in cervical cancer. Downregulation of HOXA1 was related to a poor outcome for cervical cancer patient. We also identified a significantly increased abundance of T helper 2 cells (Th2) and higher expression of PD‐L1 in cervical cancer patients with lower expression of HOXA10 and HOXA11 . The gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) results indicated that HOXA1 and HOXA11 were involved in immune responses pathways and participated in the activation of a variety of classic signaling pathways related to the progression of human cancer. Conclusion This study comprehensively analyzed different HOXA genes applying public database to determine their expression patterns, potential diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment values in cervical cancer.