DPYSL4 is a Prognostic Indicator Linked to Immune Infiltration in Gastric Cancer

Dihydropyrimidinase like 4 (DPYSL4), expressed little in normal tissues, was reported as one of the gene family members to predict prognosis in melanoma; however, there are no reports about the link between DPYSL4 expression in gastric cancer and the tumor immune microenvironment.

In our research, we first evaluated the differential expression level of DPYSL4 between gastric cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues, as well as the prognostic value of DPYSL4 expression in gastric cancer through the databases, such as Timer, UALCAN, Kaplan-Meier plotter database, accompanied with the validation of clinical specimens by immunohistochemistry. Then, we also looked for the functional pathway of DPYSL4 by analyzing the GO and KEGG enrichment analysis based on DPYSL4 co-expression genes. Last but not least, the Timer database was also applied to analyze the correlation between DPYSL4 expression and immune cells, as well as signature molecules, in order to provide a theoretical basis for assessing the relationship between DPYSL4 expression and immune infiltration in gastric cancer.

The results of databases and immunohistochemistry showed that the expression level of DPYSL4 in gastric cancer was higher than that in adjacent tissues, and DPYSL4 overexpression was associated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients. The analysis of Go and KEGG revealed that DPYSL4 expression was enriched in pathways involved in "immune responses". Furthermore, by the application of an immunoinfiltration database, DPYSL4 overexpression was strongly related to immune cell infiltration and their corresponding star molecules in gastric cancer.

Our study implied that DPYSL4 may be regarded as a prognostic indicator in gastric cancer and is associated with immune infiltration.