Elafin is related to immune infiltration and could predict the poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Weiyu Lu; Biao Xie; Guangqing Tan; Wanying Dai; Jingyi Ren; Sadaf Pervaz; Kun Li; Fangfang Li; Yingxiong Wang; Meijiao Wang

doi:10.3389/fendo.2023.1088944

Elafin is related to immune infiltration and could predict the poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Jan 19:14:1088944. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1088944. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Weiyu Lu¹, Biao Xie², Guangqing Tan¹, Wanying Dai¹, Jingyi Ren¹, Sadaf Pervaz³, Kun Li¹, Fangfang Li³, Yingxiong Wang³, Meijiao Wang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
² Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
³ Joint International Research Laboratory of Reproduction and Development of the Ministry of Education of China, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Background: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, yet the clinical results for OC patients are still variable. Therefore, we examined how elafin expression affects the patients' prognoses and immunotherapy responses in OC, which may facilitate treatment selection and improve prognosis.

Methods: The elafin mRNA expression profile was downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus. Elafin's prognostic potential and its relationship with clinical variables were investigated using Kaplan-Meier survival curves, time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves as well as univariate and multivariate Cox regression models. As validation, protein expression in the tumor and adjacent tissues of OC patients was investigated by using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Comprehensive analyses were then conducted to explore the correlation between immune infiltration and elafin expression.

Results: A higher mRNA expression of elafin was associated with an unfavorable prognosis in TCGA cohort and was validated in GSE31245 and IHC. Moreover, elafin was indicated as an independent risk factor for OC. A significantly higher protein expression of elafin was detected in the adjacent tissues of OC patients with shorter overall survival (OS). The immune-related pathways were mainly enriched in the high-elafin-mRNA-expression group. However, the mRNA expression of elafin was favorably correlated with indicators of the immune filtration and immunotherapy response, which also proved better immunotherapy outcomes.

Conclusion: The high elafin expression was associated with an unfavorable OS, while it also indicated better immunotherapy responses. Thus, the detection of elafin is beneficial to diagnosis and treatment selection.

Keywords: CIBERSORT; IHC analysis; elafin; immune infiltation; nomogram; ovarian cancer; prognosis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Elafin / genetics
Female
Genital Neoplasms, Female*
Humans
Immunotherapy
Kaplan-Meier Estimate
Ovarian Neoplasms* / diagnosis
Ovarian Neoplasms* / genetics

Substances

Elafin

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 82171624 and no. 82204159), the Chongqing Natural Science Foundation (no. cstc2020jcyj-msxmX0294), the Science and Technology Project of Chongqing Yuzhong District (no. 20200103), the Scientific Research and Innovation Experiment Project of Chongqing Medical University (no. SRIEP202002 and no. SRIEP202106), and the Chongqing Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. cstc2021jcyj-bsh0029).