ARHGAP11A Is a Prognostic Biomarker and Correlated With Immune Infiltrates in Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Background: ARHGAP11A, belongs to RhoGAPs family, is vital for cell motility. However, the role of ARHGAP11A in gastric cancer is obscure. Methods: The expression level of ARHGAP11A was analyzed by Oncomine database. The correlation of ARHGAP11A expression with immune infiltrates and associated gene markers was clarified by Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis database. The correlation between ARHGAP11A expression and the patient prognosis was identified by Kaplan-Meier plotter and PrognoScan. Genetic changes of ARHGAP11A were analyzed by cBioPortal. The protein-protein interaction network and gene functional enrichment analysis were constructed and performed by GeneMANIA and Metascape. Results: We found that the expression levels of ARHGAP11A were elevated in various cancers including gastric cancer when compared with normal tissues. High expression of ARHGAP11A was significantly correlated with a better prognosis in gastric cancer. We revealed that the expression of ARHGAP11A was negatively associated with infiltration levels of CD8⁺ T cells, CD4⁺ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. In addition, ARHGAP11A expression was significantly correlated with gene markers of these immune cells. Lastly, gene functional enrichment analysis indicated that ARHGAP11A involved in regulating lymphocyte activation, cell division, cell killing, myeloid leukocyte differentiation and leukocyte apoptosis. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that ARHGAP11A was a valuable prognostic biomarker in gastric cancer. Further work is needed to validate its role and underlying mechanisms in regulating immune infiltrates.

Keywords: ARHGAP11A; biomarker; gastric cancer; immune infiltrates; prognosis.