Lei Yu, He Xin, Chen Peng, Qin Yiping, Ge Bin, Liu Yan, Li Pu, Wei Xing
Department of Clinical Laboratory, Pidu District People's Hospital, Third Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, 611730, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, School of Medicine, Chongqing University Jiangjin Hospital, Chongqing University, Jiangjin, 402260, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
Discov Oncol. 2025 Jun 17;16(1):1132. doi: 10.1007/s12672-025-02955-9.
DDX17, an ATP-dependent RNA/DNA helicase, is implicated in the regulation of RNA metabolism and has been linked to tumorigenesis and metastasis in various cancers. While studies have explored the role of DDX17 in specific cancers, further research is needed to understand its mechanisms across different cancer types.
We leveraged several public databases, including TIMER, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), to investigate DDX17 mRNA expression across 33 types of tumors. The GEPIA2 database was utilized to assess the impact of DDX17 on overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with these tumors. Additionally, we employed cBioPortal to examine DDX17 gene alterations in various tumor tissues. Further analysis was conducted using the R language to explore the correlation between DDX17 and a range of clinical features, including tumor microenvironment (TME), immune regulatory genes, immune checkpoints, tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), DNA methylation, RNA methylation, and drug sensitivity. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was also applied to elucidate the molecular mechanisms mediated by DDX17.
DDX17 showed significant differences in expression between cancer and normal tissues. Expression of DDX17 was associated with patient prognosis, TMB, MSI, and drug sensitivity in certain cancers. DDX17 is additionally involved in modulating immune functions and influencing the tumor microenvironment. Further analysis of DDX17 mutation sites and types showed that the mutation frequency was highest in endometrial cancer and the major mutations of DDX17 were missense mutations.
These findings indicated that DDX17 may be considered a potential prognostic biomarker and a promising target for novel immunotherapeutic approaches in cancer treatment.
DDX17是一种依赖ATP的RNA/DNA解旋酶，参与RNA代谢的调控，并与多种癌症的肿瘤发生和转移有关。虽然已有研究探讨了DDX17在特定癌症中的作用，但仍需进一步研究以了解其在不同癌症类型中的作用机制。
我们利用了几个公共数据库，包括TIMER、癌症基因组图谱（TCGA）和基因型-组织表达（GTEx），来研究DDX17在33种肿瘤类型中的mRNA表达。利用GEPIA2数据库评估DDX17对这些肿瘤患者总生存期（OS）和无病生存期（DFS）的影响。此外，我们使用cBioPortal来检查各种肿瘤组织中DDX17基因的改变。使用R语言进行进一步分析，以探索DDX17与一系列临床特征之间的相关性，包括肿瘤微环境（TME）、免疫调节基因、免疫检查点、肿瘤突变负荷（TMB）、微卫星不稳定性（MSI）、DNA甲基化、RNA甲基化和药物敏感性。基因集富集分析（GSEA）也被用于阐明DDX17介导的分子机制。
DDX17在癌组织和正常组织中的表达存在显著差异。在某些癌症中，DDX17的表达与患者预后、TMB、MSI和药物敏感性相关。DDX17还参与调节免疫功能并影响肿瘤微环境。对DDX17突变位点和类型的进一步分析表明，其突变频率在子宫内膜癌中最高，且DDX17的主要突变类型为错义突变。
这些发现表明，DDX17可能被视为一种潜在的预后生物标志物，也是癌症治疗中新型免疫治疗方法的一个有前景的靶点。
