Abstract
Background Prostate cancer is one of the most lethal cancers in male individuals. The Synaptosome associated protein 25 (SNAP25) gene is a key mediator of multiple biological functions in tumours. However, its significant impact on the prognosis in prostate cancer remains to be elucidated.Methods We performed a comprehensive analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas dataset (TCGA) to identify the differentially expressed genes between prostate cancer and normal prostate tissue. We subjected the differentially expressed genes to gene ontology analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional analysis, and constructed a protein-protein interaction network. We then screened for pivotal genes to identify the hub genes of prognostic significance by performing Cox regression analysis. We identified SNAP25 as one such gene and analysed the relationship between its expression in prostate cancer to poor prognosis using Studio R. Results TCGA database demonstrated that SNAP25 was significantly downregulated in prostate cancer, and that its expression was significantly correlated with the Gleason score and pathological TNM stage of patients. The association between SNAP25 expression and tumour-infiltrating immune cells was evaluated using the Tumour Immune Estimation Resource site. Gene set enrichment and gene ontology analyses were used to analyse the function of SNAP25. We found that SNAP25 expression strongly correlated with overall survival in the Gleason score. In addition, SNAP25 was involved in the activation, differentiation, and migration of immune cells, and its expression was positively correlated with immune infiltration, including of B cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, neutrophils, dendritic cells, macrophages, and natural killer cells. SNAP25 expression was also positively correlated with chemokines/chemokine receptors, suggesting that SNAP25 might regulate the migration of immune cells. These molecular experiment results validate the low expression of SNAP25 seen in prostate cancer cells.Conclusion Our findings indicate a relationship between SNAP25 expression and prostate cancer, demonstrating that SNAP25 is a potential prognostic biomarker due to its vital role in immune infiltration.
Identification of aberrantly methylated‑differentially expressed genes and gene ontology in prostate cancer
