Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 31, 2025
Author Spotlight: Investigating Immune Cell Dynamics in the Tumor Microenvironment — Challenges and Innovations in Cancer Prognosis
Published on: April 12, 2024
NAPSB as a predictive marker for prognosis and therapy associated with an immuno-hot tumor microenvironment in
Yu-Mei Ning1,2, Kun Lin1,2, Xiao-Ping Liu3
1Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, No.169 Donghu Road, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei Province, China.
Background:
Napsin B Aspartic Peptidase, Pseudogene (NAPSB) was associated with CD4 + T cell infiltration in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. However, the biological role of NAPSB in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to be determined.
Methods:
The expression of NAPSB in HCC as well as its clinicopathological association were analyzed using data from several public datasets. qRT-PCR was used to verify the relative expression of NAPSB in patients with HCC using the Zhongnan cohort. Kaplan-Meier analyses, and univariate and multivariate Cox regression were conducted to determine the prognosis value of NAPSB on patients with HCC. Then enrichment analyses were performed to identify the possible biological functions of NAPSB. Subsequently, the immunological characteristics of NAPSB in the HCC tumor microenvironment (TME) were demonstrated comprehensively. The role of NAPSB in predicting hot tumors and its impact on immunotherapy and chemotherapy responses was also analyzed by bioinformatics methods.
Results:
NAPSB was downregulated in patients with HCC and high NAPSB expression showed an improved survival outcome. Enrichment analyses showed that NAPSB was related to immune activation. NAPSB was positively correlated with immunomodulators, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, T cell inflamed score and cancer-immunity cycle, and highly expressed in immuno-hot tumors. High expression of NAPSB was sensitive to immunotherapy and chemotherapy, possibly due to its association with pyroptosis, apoptosis and necrosis.
Conclusions:
NAPSB was correlated with an immuno-hot and inflamed TME, and tumor cell death. It can be utilized as a promising predictive marker for prognosis and therapy in HCC.
