Glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI) plays an important role in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. However, the role of GPI in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) remains unclear.
All original data were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases and integrated
In general, GPI is predominantly overexpressed and has reference value in the diagnosis and prognostic estimation of LUAD. Upregulated GPI was associated with poorer overall survival, clinical stage, N stage, and primary therapy outcome in LUAD. Mechanistically, we identified a hub gene that included a total of 56 GPI-related genes, which were tightly associated with the cell cycle pathway in LUAD patients. Knockdown of GPI induced cell proliferation inhibition and cell cycle arrest. GPI expression was positively correlated with infiltrating levels of Th2 cells and regulatory T cells (Tregs); in contrast, GPI expression was negatively correlated with infiltrating levels of CD8+ T cells, central memory T cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, mast cells, and eosinophils. GPI was negatively correlated with the expression of immunostimulators, such as CD40L, IL6R, and TMEM173, in LUAD.
GPI may play an important role in the cell cycle and can be used as a prognostic biomarker for determining the prognosis and immune infiltration in LUAD.