AUTHOR=Ren Jing , Sun Jinmin , Li Mengwei , Zhang Zifan , Yang Dejun , Cao Haowei 

TITLE=MAPK Activated Protein Kinase 3 Is a Prognostic-Related Biomarker and Associated With Immune Infiltrates in Glioma

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2021.793025

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2021.793025

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=<p>Glioma is the most common primary brain tumor that causes significant morbidity and mortality. <italic>MAPK activated protein kinase 3</italic> (<italic>MAPKAPK3</italic>/<italic>MK3</italic>) is a serine/threonine protein kinase regulating various cellular responses and gene expression. However, the role of <italic>MK3</italic> in tumor progress, prognosis, and immunity for glioma remains unclear. Here, we determined the expression and prognostic values of <italic>MK3.</italic> We further analyzed the correlation of <italic>MK3</italic> expression with immune infiltrations by using the biochemical methods and bioinformatic approaches with available databases. We find that <italic>MK3</italic> is aberrantly upregulated in glioma. In addition, the higher <italic>MK3</italic> expression is closely linked to the poor clinicopathologic features of glioma patients. Importantly, <italic>MK3</italic> expression is negatively correlated with the prognosis of patients with glioma. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that the correlated genes of <italic>MK3</italic> were mainly enriched in pathways that regulate tumor immune responses. The <italic>MK3</italic> level was significantly associated with tumor-infiltrating immune cells and positively correlated with the majority of tumor immunoinhibitors, chemokines, and chemokine receptors in glioma. Thus, these findings suggest the novel prognostic roles of <italic>MK3</italic> and define <italic>MK3</italic> as a promising target for glioma immunotherapy.</p>