Open AccessIntegrative bioinformatics and experimental analysis revealed down-regulated CDC42EP3 as a novel prognostic target for ovarian cancer and its roles in immune infiltration
Author(s) -
Yuanliang Yan,
Qiuju Liang,
Zhijie Xu,
Qiaoli Yi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
peerj
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.927
H-Index - 70
ISSN - 2167-8359
DOI - 10.7717/peerj.12171
Subject(s) - ovarian cancer , immune system , carcinogenesis , biology , cancer research , tumor microenvironment , cancer , bioinformatics , immunology , genetics
Ovarian cancer is a significant clinical challenge as no effective treatments are available to enhance patient survival. Recently, N6-methyladenosine (m 6 A) RNA modification has been demonstrated to play a pivotal role in tumorigenesis and progression. However, the roles of m 6 A target genes in ovarian cancer haven’t been clearly illustrated. In this study, we presented a comprehensive bioinformatics and in vitro analysis to evaluate the roles of m 6 A target genes. Cell division cycle 42 effector protein 3 (CDC42EP3), one probable m6A target gene, was identified to be down-regulated in ovarian cancer tissues and cells. Meanwhile, quantitative PCR (qPCR) and western blot were used to confirm the down-regulated CDC42EP3 in ovarian cancer cells A2780 and TOV112D. The biological function of CDC42EP3 in ovarian cancer was further validated with several algorithms, such as PrognoScan, K-M plotter, LinkedOmics and TISIDB. These findings indicated that lower expression of CDC42EP3 was correlated with poor prognosis in patients with ovarian cancer. In addition, CDC42EP3 expression was significantly associated with a diverse range of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, including natural killer cells (NK), T central memory cells (Tcm), T gamma delta cells (Tgd), etc. Taken together, this study uncovered the potential roles of m 6 A target gene CDC42EP3 in the regulation of immune microenvironment in the ovarian cancer, and identified CDC42EP3 as a novel prognostic target.