CLDN10 associated with immune infiltration is a novel prognostic biomarker for clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Aims: To identify the clinical roles of CLDN10 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Materials & methods: Using data from TCGA-KIRC, GEO DataSets and laboratory experiments to determine the prognostic and clinicopathological characteristics of CLDN10. Results: CLDN10 expression was remarkably reduced in ccRCC. Downregulated CLDN10 was related to metastasis and poor prognosis. Multivariate Cox analysis determined that elevated CLDN10 expression was independently correlated with longer OS and DFS. Moreover, CLDN10 expression was negatively associated with the methylation levels of cg10305311 and cg16275739. CLDN10 expression was also associated with naive CD4 and memory T-cell and dendritic cell infiltration. Conclusions: Immune-related CLDN10 is an independent prognostic biomarker of ccRCC. DNA hypermethylation plays an important role in decreased CLDN10 expression.