Chemokine receptor 4 expression is correlated with the occurrence and prognosis of gastric cancer

• Published in: FEBS open bio Vol. 10; no. 6; pp. 1149 - 1161
• Main Authors: Li, Yang, Wang, Hong‐Chang, Wang, Jin‐Shen, Sun, Bo, Li, Le‐Ping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.06.2020; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: CD4 antigen; CD8 antigen; Chemokines; Copy number; CXCR4; CXCR4 protein; CYT; Cytolytic activity; DNA microarrays; Gastric cancer; Gender; Gene expression; Genomes; Genomics; immune infiltration; Infiltration; Lymphocytes B; Lymphocytes T; Medical prognosis; Metastases; Ontology; Patients; Prognosis; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; Software; TMB; tumor purity; Tumors; United States > US; TMB; CXCR4; tumor purity; gastric cancer; immune infiltration; CYT
• ISSN: 2211-5463; 2211-5463
• DOI: 10.1002/2211-5463.12864

Gastric cancer (GC) is a common tumor with a low 5‐year survival rate. The chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) protein contributes to the progression and prognosis of GC, but the relationship between CXCR4 and immune infiltration, somatic copy number alteration (SCNA), tumor purity, tumor mutation burden (TMB), cytolytic activity (CYT), and drug sensitivity in GC is poorly understood. This study aimed to systematically explore the role of CXCR4 in GC. Microarray and RNA‐seq data were collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas. Our analysis shows that CXCR4 is correlated with various types of immune cells. Patients with high CXCR4 expression had a higher fraction of B cells and CD8+ T cells, and a lower fraction of CD4+ T cells. In addition, high CXCR4 expression was associated with more advanced tumor stage, worse prognosis and higher stromal score, immune score, and cytolytic activity (P < 0.05). High CXCR4 expression also correlated with lower tumor purity and TMB. In summary, our analyses suggest that CXCR4 may affect the progression and prognosis of GC by influencing immune infiltration, TMB, CYT, tumor purity, and drug sensitivity. CXCR4 is a chemokine receptor, which regulates tumor growth, proliferation, and metastasis in cancers. We found that gastric cancer patients with overexpression of CXCR4 had lower TMB, purity, higher CYT, and CD8 T‐cell infiltration. The patients also exhibited reduced sensitivity to 17‐AGG, trametinib, and docetaxel. Collectively, these findings suggest that patients with overexpression of CXCR4 have worse prognosis.