The potential of ATF5 as a prognostic marker and therapeutic target in cancer: insights from bioinformatics analysis...

Activating transcription factor 5 (ATF5) is a transcription regulator closely associated with cancers. Our previous studies have identified the expression and function of ATF5 in various malignant tumors. However, a comprehensive study of ATF5 remains lacking across different tumor types. This study will focus on a comprehensive analysis of ATF5 across various cancers, while further investigating the function of the ATF5 protein in gliomas and its protein characteristics.

We investigated ATF5 expression across various tumors using systematic bioinformatics analysis. We further examined the correlations between ATF5 expression and patient prognosis, tumor staging, and immunological characteristics. Additionally, functional enrichment analysis was performed on proteins interacting with or co-expressed with ATF5. We employed flow cytometry to analyze apoptosis and investigate the function of ATF5 in glioma cell lines. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry (IHC) was employed to validate the relationship between ATF5 expression and distinct glioma grades. Finally, we explored the protein phase-separation capacity of ATF5 and its influencing factors in vitro.

ATF5 expression levels exhibited a strong correlation with prognosis in multiple cancers. Functional clustering analysis of the proteins interacting with ATF5 and co-expressed with ATF5 suggested that ATF5 might influence tumor cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Immunohistochemical results demonstrated a strong association between ATF5 expression and glioma pathological grades. Additionally, flow cytometry analysis showed that interfering with ATF5 expression using small interfering RNA (siRNA) promoted apoptosis in glioma cells. Interestingly, droplet formation experiments confirmed that ATF5 is capable of aggregation in vitro and is influenced by factors such as salt concentration.

Our findings indicate that ATF5 has prognostic value in cancer treatment, providing a potential therapeutic target for subsequent treatment of related cancers.