Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Medical School of Nantong University, China.
Research Center of Clinical Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, China.
Mol Oncol. 2022 Dec;16(22):4043-4059. doi: 10.1002/1878-0261.13321. Epub 2022 Oct 20.
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies in the world, and the search for better markers has become one of the challenges today. It has been found that the L6 superfamily regulates the biological functions of numerous tumors, but transmembrane 4 L six family member 18 (TM4SF18) has been rarely reported. We found that TM4SF18 expression is upregulated in GC tissues and cells, which can be effectively diagnosed and dynamically monitored to assess the prognosis of GC patients. Furthermore, knockdown of TM4SF18 effectively inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion of GC cells, and affected the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process. TM4SF18 was found to be an independent prognostic factor for GC by univariate and multifactorial Cox analyses as well as by establishing nomogram plots. In addition, in TM4SF18 and immune correlation analysis, TM4SF18 expression levels were found to be negatively correlated with most immune cell marker genes and associated with numerous immune cells and immune pathways, resulting in less benefit from treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. In summary, we found that TM4SF18 is a promising GC biomarker that promotes the proliferation, migration, and invasion abilities of GC cells, and is associated with immune response.
胃癌（GC）是世界上最常见的恶性肿瘤之一，寻找更好的标志物已成为当今的挑战之一。已经发现 L6 超家族调节着许多肿瘤的生物学功能，但跨膜 4 L 六家族成员 18（TM4SF18）的报道很少。我们发现 TM4SF18 在 GC 组织和细胞中表达上调，可有效诊断和动态监测，以评估 GC 患者的预后。此外，敲低 TM4SF18 可有效抑制 GC 细胞的增殖、迁移和侵袭，并影响上皮-间充质转化过程。通过单因素和多因素 Cox 分析以及建立列线图，发现 TM4SF18 是 GC 的独立预后因素。此外，在 TM4SF18 和免疫相关性分析中，发现 TM4SF18 表达水平与大多数免疫细胞标志物基因呈负相关，并与许多免疫细胞和免疫途径相关，导致免疫检查点抑制剂治疗获益较少。总之，我们发现 TM4SF18 是一种有前途的 GC 标志物，可促进 GC 细胞的增殖、迁移和侵袭能力，并与免疫反应相关。
