Identification of NEK6 as a potential biomarker for prognosis in glioma

Abstract

Never in mitosis gene A-related kinase 6 (NEK6) is involved in mitotic cell cycle. However, the characteristics and roles of NEK6 in pan-cancer remain incomplete. The objective of the present study is to comprehensively explore the prognostic value of NEK6 and its potential functions in multiple cancers, especially in gliomas. In this study, we conducted of comprehensive analyses of NEK6 in pan-cancer, including expression profile, immune characteristics and its relationship with clinical prognosis. We found that NEK6 was significantly upregulated in gliomas. And the increased level of NEK6 was significantly associated with poor clinical prognoses of tumor patients. Moreover, the single-cell analysis revealed that NEK6 overexpression was highly related to malignant cells and Mono/Macrophages in glioma tissue. spebrutinib and barasertib were identified to be targeted therapeutic drugs for gliomas. Then, the prognostic role of NEK6 was further validated using an independent glioma cohort, and confirmed that the highly expression of NEK6 in glioma was positively correlated with poor prognosis in patients with glioma. In vitro experiment demonstrated that knockdown of NEK6 hindered the growth and migration capacity of the glioma cells, leading to a halt in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle and triggering apoptosis in glioma cell lines. Taken together, our data uncovered the prognostic value, therapeutic potential, and molecular insight of NEK6 in glioma.