TMBIM6 promotes glioma progression according to integrated bioinformatics and experimental evidence

TMBIM6, a transmembrane BAX inhibitor motif containing 6, located in the endoplasmic reticulum, is linked to various cellular processes and cancer progression. Previous investigations showed a substantial association between TMBIM6 and survival in patients diagnosed with various cancer types. However, the lack of extensive studies addressing the correlation between TMBIM6 and gliomas necessitates a comprehensive investigation to explore its potential as a prognosis marker for glioma. This study investigates TMBIM6's prognostic value by using data from TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas), GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus), and CGGA (Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas) databases, along with histopathological analysis of tissue microarray slide. Survival analysis confirmed the prognostic significance of TMBIM6 in glioma, while co-expression analysis identified positively and negatively correlated genes with TMBIM6, and Enrichment analysis suggested TMBIM6's association with protein processing in the ER and NOD-like receptor signaling pathways. A strong correlation was observed between TMBIM6 expression and immune infiltration, especially with M2 macrophages. Additionally, hsa-miR-128-3p was identified as an upstream regulator of TMBIM6. These findings highlight TMBIM6's potential as a prognostic biomarker for glioma, offering new insights into its role in glioma progression.