Favorable function of Ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 1 high expression in thyroid carcinoma

Ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 1 (ENTPD1) has been proved to play a vital role in human cancers. Nevertheless, the exact role of ENTPD1 in thyroid carcinoma (THCA) remained unclear. This study aimed to evaluate its prognostic value and reveal the potential regulatory mechanism in THCA.

(1) Higher expression of ENTPD1 was found in THCA tissue compared with normal tissue (all P < 0.05). ENTPD1 expression was associated with age, sub-type and clinical stage of THCA patients (all P < 0.05). Immunohistochemistry showed its higher expression in patients with early stage. (2) ENTPD1 high expression was associated with favorable overall survival of THCA patients (all P < 0.05), especially for male patients and those with advanced stage, B-cells and Natural killer T-cells decreased (all P < 0.05). (3) Pathway analysis indicated that ENTPD1 mainly participated in metabolic process and negatively regulated metabolism-related pathway such as butanoate metabolism, pyruvate metabolism and fatty acid metabolism ((all P < 0.05). (4) ENTPD1 appeared genetic alteration in THCA, and the main mutation type of ENTPD1 was missense substitution (15.89%). (5) A weak correlation between ENTPD1 expression and methylation was found (P < 0.001). Methylation of ENTPD1 in THCA was lower than in normal group (P < 0.001), but it did not correlate with any clinical phenotypes of THCA patients.

ENTPD1 was highly expressed in THCA, and ENTPD1 high expression contributed to the prognosis of THCA patients. The present study inferred that ENTPD1 might serve as a metabolism-related gene and play a critical role in THCA through regulating metabolic pathways.