TM4SF19 is a prognostic marker associated with immune invasion of bladder urothelial carcinoma

Abstract

Background Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma (BLCA) is a common urological cancer with significant morbidity and mortality. Thus, there is a need to discover novel biodiagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic markers. The four-transmembrane L6 superfamily, which includes TM4SF19, has been implicated in cancer progression, but TM4SF19's role in BLCA remains unexplored. Method TM4SF19 expression was analyzed using data from TCGA databases. The cancer-promoting mechanism of TM4SF19 in BLCA was investigated by differential expression analysis, pathway enrichment analysis, immune infiltration analysis, and correlation analysis. The prognostic analysis of TM4SF19 in the TCGA-BLCA database was carried out to study its prognostic value. The mRNA expression of TM4SF19 was verified in bladder cancer cell lines and 30 peripheral blood samples of BLCA patients. The diagnostic value of TM4SF19 in the blood of BLCA patients was verified by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Results TM4SF19 was found to be significantly overexpressed in BLCA cell lines, tumor tissue, and peripheral blood samples. ROC analysis indicated that TM4SF19 has diagnostic potential for BLCA patients. TM4SF19 expression was associated with immune cell infiltration, suggesting its impact on the tumor microenvironment. High TM4SF19 expression correlated with poor clinicopathological features and significantly reduced overall survival. Conclusion The upregulation of TM4SF19 has been observed to be correlated with the advancement of the disease and unfavorable prognosis. TM4SF19 is promised as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of BLCA patients, especially in peripheral blood testing.