Comprehensive analysis of the cuproptosis-related gene DLD across cancers: A potential prognostic and immunotherapeutic target

Abstract

DLD is a key gene involved in “cuproptosis,” but its roles in tumor progression and immunity remain unclear. Exploring the potential mechanisms and biological roles of DLD may provide new insights for therapeutic strategies for tumors. In the present study, we analyzed the role of DLD in a variety of tumors by using several bioinformatic tools. The results showed that compared with normal tissues, tumor tissues representing multiple cancers showed significant differential expression of DLD. High DLD expression was associated with a good prognosis in BRCA, KICH, and LUAD. Conversely, high expression levels of DLD were detrimental to patient prognosis in many other tumors, such as COAD, KIRC, and KIRP. In addition, the associations of DLD with infiltrating immune cells, genetic alterations and methylation levels across cancers were assessed. Aberrant expression of DLD was positively correlated with most infiltrating immune cells, especially neutrophils. The DLD methylation level was significantly decreased in COAD, LIHC, and LUSC but significantly increased in BRCA. DLD had the highest mutation rate (6.04%) in ESCA. In LUSC, patients with genetic alterations in DLD showed a poorer prognosis. At the single-cell level, the roles of DLD in regulating cancer-associated biological functions, such as metastasis, inflammation, and differentiation, were explored. Afterward, we further investigated whether several disease-associated genes could be correlated with DLD. GO enrichment analysis indicated that DLD-related genes were mainly associated with mitochondria-related cellular components, aerobic respiration and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Finally, the correlations between DLD expression and immunomodulatory genes, immune checkpoints, and sensitivity to some antitumor drugs were investigated. It is worth noting that DLD expression was positively correlated with immune checkpoint genes and immunomodulatory genes in most cancers. In conclusion, this study comprehensively analyzed the differential expression, prognostic value and immune cell infiltration-related function of DLD across cancers. Our results suggest that DLD has great potential to serve as a candidate marker for pancancer prognosis and immunotherapy and may provide a new direction for cancer treatment development.

Prognostic significance and molecular mechanisms of LPCAT1 in lung squamous cell carcinoma

“…It was reported that the level of neutrophils in ltration was signi cantly increased in the group with high prognostic risk of LUSC (Ma, Wang et al 2023). In LUSC, neutrophil in ltration levels were also signi cantly positively correlated with other prognostic risk factors such as GLUT1 and DLD (Zhang, Dong et al 2022, Yang, Guo et al 2023). These ndings support our conclusions and indicated that the elevated expression of LPCAT1 may promote tumor in ltration of neutrophils, thereby inducing the recurrence and metastasis of LUSC.…”

Identification and validation of potential diagnostic signature and immune cell infiltration for NAFLD based on cuproptosis-related genes by bioinformatics analysis and machine learning

“…DLD participates in the decarboxylation process of pyruvate, leading to the formation of acetyl coenzyme A within the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. During its redox activity, it has the potential to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) ( 45 ). The overproduction of ROS hampers the effectiveness of other antioxidant defense mechanisms in NAFLD, leading to heightened oxidative harm ( 46 ).…”

Visualization of the relationship between macrophage and wound healing from the perspective of bibliometric analysis

“…This platform facilitated the aggregation of gene data from numerous studies within a specific field, with publications sourced from the PubMed database. The protein–protein interaction network and functional enrichment analysis of the top studied genes were conducted through using Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database, available at https://string-db.org/ 37 …”

“…The protein–protein interaction network and functional enrichment analysis of the top studied genes were conducted through using Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database, available at https://string-db.org/ . 37 …”