Expression Correlates with Immune Cell Infiltration and Can Predict Prognosis in Lung Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND

Sorting nexin-20 (SNX20) is a member of the sorting nexin family of proteins. It plays a crucial role in the regulation of innate immunity. However, the prognostic risk, potential mechanisms, immunotherapy, and other functions of in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remain unclear.

METHODS

We analyzed and validated the expression and prognostic role of in LUAD through a combination of The Cancer Genome Atlas, Gene Expression Omnibus, Oncomine, TIMER, and Human Protein Atlas databases. Further, we analyzed the correlation between expression and clinical characteristics of LUAD, and the prognostic value of in LUAD was evaluated. Using fitted expression and other clinical parameters, a predictive model with predictive performance for the overall survival of patients with LUAD was constructed. The potential biological function of in LUAD was explored using gene set enrichment analysis. In addition, we analyzed the correlation between expression and the immune microenvironment and survival.

RESULTS

was downregulated in most cancer types, was associated with poor prognosis in LUAD and could be an independent prognostic factor for patients with LUAD. The predictive model developed by us had good predictive power for determining the overall survival of patients with LUAD. Biofunctional analysis revealed that genes co-expressed with mainly promoted the immune process and inhibited the cell proliferation process in LUAD. We observed that high expression of was accompanied by a better immune microenvironment and survival in patients with LUAD. Furthermore, the LUAD immune response was elevated with an increase in expression. Finally, we found that expression was significantly associated with various tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and it was widely involved in regulating various immune molecules in LUAD and affecting immune infiltration in the tumor microenvironment.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggested that is a potential immune-related biomarker and therapeutic target associated with the prognosis of patients with LUAD. This provided a new strategy for the development of immunotherapeutic and prognostic markers in LUAD.