Impact of HMGA1 on tumorigenesis, prognosis and immune microenvironment in HNSCC: a multi-omics study

HMGA1 plays an important role in a variety of biological processes. However, it is still unclear what role HMGA1 plays in HNSCC. By integrating multi-omics data from public and private cohorts, we conducted a comprehensive analysis. The results showed that HMGA1 expression was significantly higher in HNSCC tumor tissue, correlated with poor prognosis. Increased HMGA1 expression indicated distinct somatic mutations and heavier tumor mutation burden, meanwhile, had significant interaction with several immune checkpoints. Single-cell analysis suggested that HMGA1 was highly enriched in malignant cells. In-vitro and in-vivo experiments also suggested that HMGA1 promoted the proliferation, migration and activation of HNSCC cells. Upstream analysis showed that cg25207224_HMGA1 tested by oral rinse specimen maybe a non-invasive in-vitro predictive marker for prognostic prediction of HNSCC. Our study revealed the impact of HMGA1 on tumorigenesis, prognosis and immune microenvironment in HNSCC from a multi-omics perspective and provided a therapeutic target for HNSCC patients.