Identification of novel genes in testicular cancer microenvironment based on ESTIMATE algorithm‐derived immune scores

• Published in: Journal of cellular physiology Vol. 236; no. 1; pp. 706 - 713
• Main Authors: Ke, Zhi‐Bin, Wu, Yu‐Peng, Huang, Peng, Hou, Jian, Chen, Ye‐Hui, Dong, Ru‐Nan, Lin, Fei, Wei, Yong, Xue, Xue‐Yi, Ng, Chi‐Fai, Xu, Ning
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2021
• Subjects: Algorithms; Cancer; Cell surface; Encyclopedias; ESTIMATE; Gene expression; Genes; Genomes; Immune response; immune score; Immune system; Malignancy; novel genes; Receptors; Signal transduction; Signaling; TCGA; Testes; Testicular cancer; testicular cancer; immune score; ESTIMATE; TCGA; novel genes
• ISSN: 0021-9541; 1097-4652; 1097-4652
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.29898

Testicular cancer is the most common solid malignancy among young men. We downloaded data of testicular cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database to find novel genes in the testicular cancer microenviroment based on ESTIMATE algorithm‐derived immune scores. A total of 156 cases of testicular cancer were included in this study and 165 cases of normal testicular tissues were used. We divided the testicular cancer patients into high‐ and low‐score groups based on their immune scores. We identified 1,226 differentially expressed genes (fold change > 2, false discovery rate < 0.05), including 688 downregulated genes and 538 upregulated genes, between these two groups. The top Gene Ontology terms were involved in the immune response‐regulating cell surface receptor signaling pathway, immune response‐activating cell surface receptor signaling pathway, external side of the plasma membrane, and receptor ligand activity. By performing the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis, we demonstrated that cAMP signaling pathway was highly enriched among these differentially expressed genes. High expression of LINC01564, LINC02208, ODAM, RNA5SP111, and RNU6‐196P were found to be associated with poor overall survival. The expression of genes was further validated by the Human Protein Atlas and only ALB and IFNG were demonstrated to be differentially expressed between testis tissue and testicular cancer tissue. Testicular cancer is the most common solid malignancy among young men. We used the ESTIMATE algorithm to calculate immune scores and obtain several novel genes associated with testicular cancer microenvironment. Two genes were validated by the Human Protein Atlas database to be differentially expressed between testis tissue and testicular cancer tissues. These findings would contribute greatly to the understanding of the potential mechanism of testicular cancer.