Abstract
This study examines the prognostic role and immunological relevance of EMP1 (epithelial membrane protein-1) in a pan-cancer analysis, with a focus on ovarian cancer. Utilizing data from TCGA, CCLE, and GTEx databases, we assessed EMP1 mRNA expression and its correlation with tumor progression, prognosis, and immune microenvironment across various cancers. Our results indicate that EMP1 expression is significantly associated with poor prognosis in multiple cancer types, including ovarian, bladder, testicular, pancreatic, breast, brain, and uveal melanoma. Immune-related analyses reveal a positive correlation between EMP1 and immune cell infiltration, particularly neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells, as well as high expression of immune checkpoint such as CD274, HAVCR2, IL10, PDCD1LG2, and TGFB1 in most tumors. In vivo experiments confirm that EMP1 promotes ovarian cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and invasion. In conclusion, EMP1 emerges as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in various cancers, particularly ovarian cancer, due to its influence on tumor progression and immune cell dynamics. Further research is warranted to elucidate the precise mechanisms of EMP1 in cancer biology and to translate these findings into clinical applications.
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The RNA-sequencing data and corresponding clinical information were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/), the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) (https://www.gtexportal.org/) and the Broad Institute Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) (https://sites.broadinstitute.org/ccle/). The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to gratefully acknowledge contributions from TCGA, CCLE and GTEx.
Funding
This work was supported by funds including the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant nos. 2018YFC1002804 and 2016YFC1000600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81771618, 81971356).
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BY and JZ conceived and designed the research. JZ and XL collected and conducted data under the instruction of BY. JY supervised the study and provided funds. BY, LM, YZ participant in vivo experiments. JZ wrote the initial paper and BY revised the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All related experiments were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. All patients provided written informed consent.
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Zhang, J., Yang, J., Li, X. et al. EMP1 correlated with cancer progression and immune characteristics in pan-cancer and ovarian cancer. Mol Genet Genomics 299, 51 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-024-02146-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-024-02146-1