Mining hub genes correlated with immune infiltrating level across multiple tumors microenvironment
Abstract Background Previous studies revealed that cancer-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in an independent cancer type are rarely related to the tumorigenesis and metastasis, while the common DEGs across multiple types of cancer may be proved as potential oncogenes or tumor suppressors and extend our understanding. Although tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) have been reported to be associated with prognosis in multiple types of cancer, the hub genes regulating immune cells function in different cancer types remain unclear.Methods To screen for the hub genes regulating immune infiltrating level across multiple tumors microenvironment, the raw data containing RNA sequencing and clinical information from TCGA database and immune scores from ESTIMATE website across 25 cancer types were obtained.Results Based on the immune scores, all cases were categorized into high-score and low-score groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated that a strong correlation was found in six cancer types. The functional enrichment analysis of common DEGs revealed that infection and immune response are the most prominent biological characteristics. Subsequently, the twelve common DEGs with prognostic value were identified as candidate hub genes and were adopted to construct the PPI network. Because of highly interconnected with other hub genes, protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 6 (PTPN6) was selected as the real hub gene across the six immune-specific tumors.Conclusion Due to the significant correlation between PTPN6 with tumor-infiltrating immune cells in multiple cancers, PTPN6 may well play a vital role in regulating immune response for tumor development.