Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Int J Biol Sci. 2023 Sep 4;19(14):4689-4708. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.80017. eCollection 2023.
Nucleolar and spindle-associated protein 1 (NUSAP1) is a microtubule-associated protein that plays a crucial role in mitosis. Despite initial reports suggesting a potential involvement of NUSAP1 in tumor progression and malignant cell regulation, there has been no systematic analysis of its role in the tumor immune microenvironment, nor its predictive value for prognosis and immunotherapy response across different cancer types. In this study, we analyze NUSAP1 mRNA and protein expression levels in various human normal and tumor tissues, using data from TCGA, GTEx, CPTAC, HPA databases, and clinical samples. Our findings reveal that NUSAP1 is highly expressed in multiple tumor tissues across most cancer types and is primarily expressed in malignant and immune cells, according to single-cell sequencing data from the TISCH database. Prognostic analysis based on curated survival data from the TCGA database indicates that NUSAP1 expression levels can predict clinical outcomes for 26 cancer types. Furthermore, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) suggests that NUSAP1 promotes cell proliferation, tumor cell invasion, and regulation of anti-tumor response. Analysis of immune score, immune cell infiltration, and anti-cancer immunity cycle using ESTIMATE, TIMER, and TIP databases show that high NUSAP1 levels are associated with low CD4T and NKT cell infiltration but high Th2 and MDSC infiltration, inversely correlated with antigen-presenting molecules and positively correlated with a variety of immune negative regulatory molecules. Notably, patients with melanoma, lung, and kidney cancer with high NUSAP1 expression levels have shorter survival times and lower immunotherapy response rates. Using Cmap analysis, we identify Entinostat and AACOCF3 as potential inhibitors of NUSAP1-mediated pro-oncogenic effects. and experiments further confirm that NUSAP1 knockdown significantly reduces the proliferation ability of A549 and MCF-7 cells. Overall, our study highlights the potential of NUSAP1 expression as a novel biomarker for predicting prognosis and immuno-therapeutic efficacy across different human cancers and suggests its potential for developing novel antitumor drugs or improving immunotherapy.
核仁纺锤体相关蛋白 1(NUSAP1)是一种微管相关蛋白,在有丝分裂中发挥着关键作用。尽管最初的报道表明 NUSAP1 可能参与肿瘤进展和恶性细胞调节,但尚未对其在肿瘤免疫微环境中的作用进行系统分析,也未对其在不同癌症类型中的预后和免疫治疗反应的预测价值进行分析。在这项研究中,我们使用 TCGA、GTEx、CPTAC、HPA 数据库和临床样本中的数据,分析了各种人类正常组织和肿瘤组织中的 NUSAP1 mRNA 和蛋白表达水平。我们的研究结果表明,根据 TISCH 数据库中的单细胞测序数据,NUSAP1 在大多数癌症类型的多种肿瘤组织中高表达,主要在恶性细胞和免疫细胞中表达。基于 TCGA 数据库中经过整理的生存数据的预后分析表明,NUSAP1 表达水平可以预测 26 种癌症的临床结局。此外,基因集富集分析(GSEA)表明,NUSAP1 促进细胞增殖、肿瘤细胞侵袭和抗肿瘤反应的调节。使用 ESTIMATE、TIMER 和 TIP 数据库分析免疫评分、免疫细胞浸润和抗癌免疫周期表明,高 NUSAP1 水平与 CD4T 和 NKT 细胞浸润减少但 Th2 和 MDSC 浸润增加相关,与抗原呈递分子呈负相关,与多种免疫负调控分子呈正相关。值得注意的是,NUSAP1 高表达的黑色素瘤、肺癌和肾癌患者的生存时间更短,免疫治疗反应率更低。使用 Cmap 分析,我们确定了 Entinostat 和 AACOCF3 作为 NUSAP1 介导的促癌作用的潜在抑制剂。进一步的实验证实,NUSAP1 敲低显著降低了 A549 和 MCF-7 细胞的增殖能力。总的来说,我们的研究强调了 NUSAP1 表达作为预测不同人类癌症预后和免疫治疗疗效的新型生物标志物的潜力,并表明其在开发新型抗肿瘤药物或改善免疫治疗方面的潜力。