Pan-cancer analysis reveals DDX21 as a potential biomarker for the prognosis of multiple tumor types

Abstract

BackgroundDExD-box helicase 21 (DDX21) is an essential member of the RNA helicase family. DDX21 is involved in the carcinogenesis of various malignancies, but there has been no comprehensive research on its involvement in different types of cancer.MethodThis study used TCGA, CPTAC, GTEx, GEO, FANTOM5, BioGRID, TIMER2, GEPIA2, cBioPortal, STRING, and Metascape databases and Survival ROC software to evaluate DDX21 gene expression, protein expression, immunohistochemistry, gene mutation, immune infiltration, and protein phosphorylation in 33 TCGA tumor types, as well as the prognostic relationship between DDX21 and different tumors, by survival analysis and similar gene enrichment analysis. Furthermore, Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and Transwell studies were employed to assess the effect of DDX21 expression on lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cell proliferation and migration.ResultThe DDX21 gene was highly expressed in most cancers, and overexpression was associated with poor overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). DDX21 mutations were most common in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC; >5%), and DDX21 expression was positively correlated with the degree of infiltration of CAF and CD8+ cells in several tumor types. Numerous genes were co-expressed with DDX21. Gene enrichment analysis revealed close links between DDX21, RNA metabolism, and ribosomal protein production. In vitro analysis of LUAD cells showed that DDX21 expression was positively correlated with cell proliferation and migration capacity, consistent with prior bioinformatics studies.ConclusionsDDX21 is overexpressed in a variety of cancers, and overexpression in some cancers is associated with poor prognosis. Immune infiltration and DDX21-related gene enrichment analyses indicated that DDX21 may affect cancer development through mechanisms that regulate tumor immunity, RNA metabolism, and ribosomal protein synthesis. This pan-cancer study revealed the prognostic value and the oncogenic role of DDX21.

RRP9 and DDX21 as new biomarkers of colorectal cancer

“…[30] Hu Ankang et al also found that DDX21 gene was significantly expressed in 13 cancers including CRC. [31] The above literature review is consistent with our results. The higher the expression of DDX21 in CRC, the higher the DDX21, the worse the prognosis.…”

Deep Visual Proteomics Unveils Precision Medicine Insights in Composite Small Lymphocytic and Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma

“…We identified 2831, 3183 and 3090 protein groups in GC, HRS and SLL populations, respectively ( Figure 2A-B, Supplementary figure 2C-D ). Comparing HRS or SLL to GC, the top ten significantly differentially expressed proteins, nine of them have previously been linked to lymphoma: TUBB2A, KPNA2, CDK1, IRF4, FSCN1, DDX21, TSR1, collagen and C1QA ( Figure 2A-B ) 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 . Furthermore, upregulation of SLC3A2 in SLL was in alignment with data from the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database 24 ( Supplementary figure 3A ).…”

TMEM41A overexpression correlates with poor prognosis and immune alterations in patients with endometrial carcinoma

“…In recent years, there has been growing interest in identifying new biomarkers for EC. Several studies have focused on identifying and characterizing the roles of novel oncogenes in EC progression and prognosis [14][15][16][17]. For instance, OTU deubiquitinase, ubiquitin aldehyde binding 2 (OTUB2) expression was significantly enhanced in EC, which was associated with poor prognosis of cancer patients.…”