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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.

Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Hepato Pancreatic Biliary Cancers

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1492599

This article is part of the Research Topic Impact of the Inflammatory Microenvironment on Immune Infiltration in Colorectal and Liver Cancers: Insights for New Immunotherapeutic Strategies View all 3 articles

GINS1 Is a Prognostic Biomarker and Correlated With Methylation and Immune Escape in Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Provisionally accepted
Mingchao Liang Mingchao Liang 1Tianqi Lai Tianqi Lai 2,3Zhen Li Zhen Li 1Wei Yu Wei Yu 2Mingrong Cao Mingrong Cao 2Nan Yao Nan Yao 3Youzhu Hu Youzhu Hu 1,2Tongzheng Liu Tongzheng Liu 4Junjie Liang Junjie Liang 5*
  • 1 The Affiliated Shunde Hospital, Jinan University, Foshan, China
  • 2 The First Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
  • 3 Medical College, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
  • 4 College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
  • 5 First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    GINS1 is correlated with a poor prognosis in numerous cancers including liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC). Here, efforts have been made to explore the function and underlying mechanism in LIHC through bioinformatics analysis. The mRNA and protein expression data of GINS1 were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), the University of Alabama at Birmingham CANcer Data Analysis Portal (UALCAN), and the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. Moreover, the protein expression of GINS1 was further substantiated by immunohistochemistry staining from 116 clinical samples. Subsequently, the diagnostic and prognostic role of GINS1 in LIHC patients were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and the Kaplan-Meier plotter (KM-plotter) database. GeneMANIA and STRING databases were respectively used to construct gene and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of GINS1. Enrichment analyses were conducted to investigate the functions of GINS1. To assess the genetic alterations, methylation, and prognostic value, cBioPortal, and MethSurv databases were utilized. Additionally, Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER), Tumor-Immune System Interaction Database (TISIDB), and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) were used to explore the correlation with tumor immune. Differential expression analyses validated the upregulation of GINS1 in LIHC. Furthermore, the prognostic and diagnostic values of GINS1 were substantiated by the ROC curve, Kaplan-Meier plotters, and forest plots. Further enrichment, methylation, and tumor immune microenvironment analyses showed an intimate connection with GINS1. In conclusion, GINS1 which is correlated with methylation and immune escape may predict the prognosis of LIHC.

    Keywords: GINS1, biomarkers, prognosis, Methylation, immune escape, liver hepatocellular carcinoma

    Received: 07 Sep 2024; Accepted: 19 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Liang, Lai, Li, Yu, Cao, Yao, Hu, Liu and Liang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Junjie Liang, First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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