STK4, a novel prognostic biomarker, correlated with immune infiltrates in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract

Background Mammalian STE20-like kinase 1 (MST1/STK4/KRS2) is a highly conservative serine/threonine kinase, as well as a a core member of the Hippo signaling pathway. STK4 has been reported play important roles in mutiple tumors. However, there has still been no systematic and comprehensive study on the role of the STK4 in ccRCC. Methods In this study, experiments including Immunohistochemistry (IHC), western blot (WB), and quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) combined with bioinformatics analysis were used to integrate the analysis of the expression, prognostic value, and immune infiltration of STK4 in ccRCC. Results The findings from the TCGA database revealed that the expression of STK4 and its expression based on the tumor stage, tumor grade, and nodal metastasis status in ccRCC was increased. The results of IHC, WB, and RT-PCR further verified it. Additionally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to clarify the diagnositic value of STK4 in patients with ccRCC. According to the Timer database, we found that the high expression of STK4 has significant (p < 0.001) association with renal cancer (including ccRCC) patients survival, suggesting that STK4 is a reliable prognostic predictors. Then, GSEA was performed to explore the mechanism underlying the functions of STK4 in ccRCC. We found that STK4 may play roles in immunoregulatory interactions. Subsequently, STK4 were subjected to immune infiltration analyses. Results suggested that STK4 may play roles in the development of ccRCC by adjusting immune infiltration by influencing NK and pDCs cell. Conclusions STK4 may be prognostic markers in ccRCC and potential for finding novel strategies for the treatment of patients with ccRCC.