AUTHOR=Cheng Lang , Zou Xiong , Wang Jiawei , Zhang Jiange , Mo Zengnan , Huang Houbao 

TITLE=The role of CRYAB in tumor prognosis and immune infiltration: A Pan-cancer analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Surgery

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/surgery/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2022.1117307

DOI=10.3389/fsurg.2022.1117307

ISSN=2296-875X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Purpose</title><p>There is evidence that the Crystallin Alpha B <italic>(CRYAB)</italic> gene is involved in the regulation of the tumor microenvironment and influences tumor prognosis in some cancers. However, the role of <italic>CRYAB</italic> gene in prognosis and immunology in pan-cancer is still unclear.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>In this study, we analyzed the transcriptional profiles and survival data of cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. <italic>CRYAB</italic> gene and its relationships with pan-cancer were analyzed using R packages, TIMER2.0, GEPIA2, Sangerbox, UALCAN, cBioPortal, ESTIMATE algorithm, and STRING. Besides, real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was utilized to detect <italic>CRYAB</italic> expression in KIRC and a human KIRC cell line (Caki-1).</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>We found that <italic>CRYAB</italic> expression was different in tumors and adjacent tumors in human cancers, affecting patients’ prognosis in 15 cancer types. Additionally, <italic>CRYAB</italic> expression significantly correlated with tumor microenvironment (TME), immune checkpoints (ICP), tumor mutational burden (TMB), and microsatellite instability (MSI) in human cancers. Besides, <italic>CRYAB</italic> expression was positively associated with the immune infiltration of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and endothelial cells in most human cancers. Based on enrichment analysis, the most prevalent <italic>CRYAB</italic> gene mechanism in malignant tumors may be through anti-apoptotic activity. Moreover, some FDA-approved drugs were found to be associated with <italic>CRYAB</italic> and might be potential cancer therapeutic candidates.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p><italic>CRYAB</italic> is a crucial component of the TME and influences immune cell infiltration, making it a promising biomarker to assess immune infiltration and prognosis in many malignancies.</p></sec>