With the increasing incidence and mortality of renal cancer, it is pressing to find new biomarkers and drug targets for diagnosis and treatment. However, as one negative upstream regulator of p53, the prognostic and immunological role of NFE2L3 in renal cancer is still barely known. We investigated the expression, prognostic value, and relevant pathways of NFE2L3 using the datasets from public databases, including The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE), and UALCAN. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship between NFE2L3 expression and the immune microenvironment using distinct methods. We found that NFE2L3 was higher expressed in kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) and kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP) tissues than adjacent normal tissues. Additionally, we identified NFE2L3 as one survival-related factor for KIRC and KIRP. The enrichment analyses revealed that NFE2L3 was associated with a variety of immune-relevant pathways in KIRC and related to the infiltration ratios of 17 types of immune cells in KIRC patients. Ultimately, we demonstrated nine significantly enriched mutations, such as TP53 and MET, in NFE2L3-expression-changing groups. The elevated expression of NFE2L3 in renal cancerous tissues versus normal tissues is associated with poor outcomes in patients. Besides, NFE2L3 has a role in the regulation of the immune microenvironment in renal cancer patients. The findings of our study provide a potential prognostic biomarker and a new drug target for renal cancer.
BioMed research international. 2022 Oct 26*** epublish ***
Qian Zhang, Donge Tang, Aiyun Zha, Jingquan He, Dandan Li, Yumei Chen, Wanxia Cai, Jian Dai, Shaodong Luan, Lianghong Yin, Wei Zhang, Yong Dai
Clinical Medical Research Center, The Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University, Shenzhen People's Hospital, Shenzhen 518020, China., Institute of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China., Department of Biomedical Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510630, China., Department of Nephrology, Shenzhen Longhua District Central Hospital, Shenzhen 518110, China.