AUTHOR=Li Hetong , Yang Dinglong , Hao Min , Liu Hongqi 

TITLE=Differential expression of HAVCR2 gene in pan-cancer: A potential biomarker for survival and immunotherapy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.972664

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2022.972664

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p>T-cell immunoglobulin mucin 3 (TIM-3) has emerged as a promising immune checkpoint target in cancer therapy. However, the profile of the hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 2 (<italic>HAVCR2</italic>) gene, encoding TIM-3 expression, is still obscure, along with its role in cancer immunity and prognosis. This study comprehensively analyzed <italic>HAVCR2</italic> expression patterns in pan-cancer and underlined its potential value for immune checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapy. Our results displayed that <italic>HAVCR2</italic> was differentially expressed and closely corresponded to survival status in pan-cancer. More importantly, the <italic>HAVCR2</italic> expression level was also significantly related to cancer immune infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, and immune marker genes. Enrichment analyses implicated <italic>HAVCR2</italic>-associated terms in cancer, including immunity, metabolism, and inflammation. Our study demonstrated that <italic>HAVCR2</italic> could participate in differing degrees of immune infiltration in tumorigenesis. The highlights of the <italic>HAVCR2</italic> pathway revealed that TIM-3 could function as both a biomarker and clinical target to improve the therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapy.</p>