High expression of the gene promotes immune infiltration and improves tumor prognosis in ovarian serous carcinoma using bioinformatics analyses.

BACKGROUND

Annexin A3 () expression change is related to tumor cell proliferation and might serve as a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for cancer. However, its roles and mechanisms in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma (OV) have not yet been elucidated. This study aimed to investigate expression in OV, its association with immune infiltrates, and its prognostic roles in OV.

METHODS

The clinical data and gene expression profiles of 379 patients (189 with low expression and 190 with high level) with an OV diagnosis confirmed by histopathological examination were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov). The survival rate and expected survival time were used to measure disease prognosis. Survival curves were generated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression and a nomogram prediction model were used to analyze the relationship between and the survival rate. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between clinicopathological features and expression. Protein-protein interactions among relevant proteins were established using the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) database. The signaling pathways interacting with were analyzed using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses.

RESULTS

High expression significantly correlated with lymph node infiltration (odds ratio =0.448, P=0.025) and overall favorable survival (hazard ratio =0.69, P=0.011). The Federation International of Gynecology and Obstetrics stages, primary therapy outcome, age, and residual tumor might serve as independent prognostic factors, whereas the levels could not independently predict OV prognosis. expression negatively and statistically (P<0.05) correlated with lymphatic invasion in Th17 cells, T follicular helper (TFH) cells, and T effector memory cells. The GO/KEGG pathway enrichment analysis confirmed the involvement of three signaling pathways in controlling the interaction of extracellular vesicles with .

CONCLUSIONS

High expression may contribute to tumor inhibition and a favorable prognosis to a certain extent by promoting the infiltration of TFH cells and Th17 lymphocytes or acting on extracellular vesicles inducing a stronger T-cell-mediated immunity against tumor cells.