Elafin is related to immune infiltration and could predict the poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Abstract

BackgroundOvarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, yet the clinical results for OC patients are still variable. Therefore, we examined how elafin expression affects the patients’ prognoses and immunotherapy responses in OC, which may facilitate treatment selection and improve prognosis.MethodsThe elafin mRNA expression profile was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus. Elafin’s prognostic potential and its relationship with clinical variables were investigated using Kaplan–Meier survival curves, time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves as well as univariate and multivariate Cox regression models. As validation, protein expression in the tumor and adjacent tissues of OC patients was investigated by using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Comprehensive analyses were then conducted to explore the correlation between immune infiltration and elafin expression.ResultsA higher mRNA expression of elafin was associated with an unfavorable prognosis in TCGA cohort and was validated in GSE31245 and IHC. Moreover, elafin was indicated as an independent risk factor for OC. A significantly higher protein expression of elafin was detected in the adjacent tissues of OC patients with shorter overall survival (OS). The immune-related pathways were mainly enriched in the high-elafin-mRNA-expression group. However, the mRNA expression of elafin was favorably correlated with indicators of the immune filtration and immunotherapy response, which also proved better immunotherapy outcomes.ConclusionThe high elafin expression was associated with an unfavorable OS, while it also indicated better immunotherapy responses. Thus, the detection of elafin is beneficial to diagnosis and treatment selection.

An artificial intelligence prediction model based on extracellular matrix proteins for the prognostic prediction and immunotherapeutic evaluation of ovarian serous adenocarcinoma

“…High levels of PI3 are associated with severe disease severity in various cancers ( Hunt et al, 2013 ; Longatto-Filho et al, 2021 ), while another TCGA-OV analysis showed its prognostic value in OC ( Li J et al, 2020 ). Additionally, high elafin expression has been associated with unfavorable OS but better immunotherapy responses ( Lu et al, 2023 ). Recent studies have found that TGFBI CpG islands are hypermethylated in adjacent normal colon tissue, with the corresponding sequences showing hypomethylation in colon cancer tissue, and that higher TGFBI levels are associated with poorer prognosis ( Zhang H. et al, 2019 ).…”