Acyl-coenzyme A synthetase medium chain family member 1 (ACSM1) is a medium chain Acyl-CoA Synthetase family member and plays an important role in fatty acid metabolism. The oncogenic roles of ACSM1 are largely unknown. Using comprehensive approaches, we analyzed gene expression profiles and genomic datasets and identified that the expression of ACSM1 was specifically increased in prostate cancer in comparison to the adjacent non-tumor tissues. The increased expression of ACSM1 was associated with increased risks of poor prognosis and shorter survival time. Moreover, genomic copy number alterations of ACSM1, including deletion, amplification, and amino acid changes were frequently observed in prostate cancers, although these mutations did not correlate with gene expression levels. However, ACSM1 gene amplifications were significantly corrected with increased risks of prostate cancer metastasis, and ACSM1 genetic alterations were significantly associated with worse disease-free. And progress-free survival. Gene function stratification and gene set enrichment analysis revealed that the oncogenic roles of ACSM1 in prostate cancer were mainly through metabolic pathways and extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction signaling pathways, but not associated with microenvironmental immunological signaling pathways, and that ACSM1 expression was not associated with immune cell infiltration in the cancer microenvironment or prostate cancer immune subtypes. In conclusion, the present work has demonstrated that ACSM1 can be specifically and significantly elevated in prostate cancer. ACSM1 gene expression and genomic amplification exhibit important clinical significance through metabolic and ECM-receptor interaction signaling pathways. Thus, ACSM1 may be a novel oncogene and serve as a biomarker for prostate cancer screening and prognosis prediction, and/or a therapeutic target.
Keywords: ACSM1; ECM-receptor interaction; metabolic signaling pathway; metastasis; microenvironment; prostate cancer.
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