AHNAK2 is a novel prognostic marker and correlates with immune infiltration in papillary thyroid cancer: Evidence from integrated analysis

• Published in: International immunopharmacology Vol. 90; p. 107185
• Main Authors: Zheng, Long, Li, Shanshan, Zheng, Xianghong, Guo, Rong, Qu, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.01.2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: AHNAK2; Bioinformatic analysis; Cancer; Correlation analysis; GEO; Immune infiltration; Immune system; Infiltration; Lymph nodes; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Markers; Metastases; Papillary thyroid cancer; Survival; Survival analysis; Thyroid; Thyroid cancer; GEO; Bioinformatic analysis; Papillary thyroid cancer; AHNAK2; Immune infiltration
• ISSN: 1567-5769; 1878-1705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.107185

•AHNAK2 was identified as a valuable prognostic marker in PTC.•High expression of AHNAK2 correlated with worse clinical characteristics in PTC.•High expression of AHNAK2 correlated with tumor–related immune cell infiltration in PTC. Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most prevalent endocrine tumor, and its incidence is still increasing. The mechanisms of PTC dedifferentiation and malignant progression remain unclear. In this study, we identified AHNAK2 as a key gene in PTC by differential expression analysis among four GEO datasets and validated its overexpression profile by data from the Oncomine, TCGA, and HPA databases and IHC staining analysis. AHNAK2 upregulation significantly correlated with advanced grades, stages, and lymph node events. Survival analysis suggested that AHNAK2 overexpression was coupled with poor overall survival. The immune infiltration analysis by TIMER and CIBERSORT indicated that AHNAK2 expression tightly correlated with the infiltration of diverse immune cell types, especially T cell subtypes. In addition, AHNAK2 is correlated with the expression of other conventional key genes of TC, such as PIK3CA, MAPK1, CTNNB1, and SLC5A5. AHNAK2 may be a novel prognostic marker for PTC.