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Updated: Aug 10, 2025
Author Spotlight: Investigating Immune Cell Dynamics in the Tumor Microenvironment — Challenges and Innovations in Cancer Prognosis
Published on: April 12, 2024
Poor Prognostic Biomarker KIAA1522 Is Associated with Immune Infiltrates in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Yongjie Shi1, Qiwen Xiao1, Sicong Huang1
1Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Background:
The prognosis is poor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a tumor and cancer associated with inflammation that is common. New data showed that significant levels of KIAA1522 were expressed in HCC tissues and cell lines, suggesting that KIAA1522 may be a highly useful prognostic marker for HCC. However, its biochemical processes and impacts on the immune system go deeper.
Objective:
To verify the significance of KIAA1522 in HCC and investigate its related carcinogenic mechanisms.
Methods:
Studies examining the relationship between KIAA1522 expression and clinical-pathologic characteristics in HCC have been checked in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the diagnostic efficacy of KIAA1522 in HCC. Western blot analysis was used to find the presence of the KIAA1522 protein in the tumor and paraneoplastic tissues of eight randomly chosen HCC patients. The GSVA program in R language was used to evaluate the relationship between KIAA1522 and immune cell infiltration in HCC. We searched the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) database for interacting proteins connected to the expression of KIAA1522. Pathways were involved in the enrichment analysis of KIAA1522 to anticipate potential mechanisms through which KIAA1522 may affect immunological infiltration.
Results:
Our study found that KIAA1522 was commonly elevated in HCC tumor tissues and that it also signaled a bad outcome. We found an inverse link between KIAA1522 and cytotoxic cells and an inverse relationship between KIAA1522 and Th2 cell infiltration. In STRING analysis, the top 5 coexpressed proteins of KIAA1522 were BAIAP2, NCK2, TSNAXIP1, POGK, and KLHL31. The effect of KIAA1522 on HCC may entail cell cycle alteration, an immunological response, and suppression of the PPAR signaling pathway.
Conclusion:
High expression of KIAA1522 was linked to HCC immune cell infiltration, disease progression, and a poor prognosis.
