Pan-cancer analysis of PLAU indicates its potential prognostic value and correlation with neutrophil infiltration in BLCA

Ke Shi; Jianda Zhou; Man Li; Wenguang Yan; Jiaqi Zhang; Xiulan Zhang; Li Jiang

doi:10.1016/j.bbadis.2023.166965

Pan-cancer analysis of PLAU indicates its potential prognostic value and correlation with neutrophil infiltration in BLCA

Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis. 2024 Feb;1870(2):166965. doi: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2023.166965. Epub 2023 Nov 22.

Authors

Ke Shi¹, Jianda Zhou¹, Man Li², Wenguang Yan³, Jiaqi Zhang³, Xiulan Zhang³, Li Jiang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plastic Surgery, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410000, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology, Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361102, China.
³ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410000, PR China.
⁴ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410000, PR China; Postdoctoral Station of Basic Medicine, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410000, PR China. Electronic address: jiangli@csu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38000776
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2023.166965

Abstract

Background: PLAU is known as a selected serine protease converting plasminogen to plasmin. The role of PLAU in the development of pan-cancer, especially bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) remains unclear.

Method: A variety of online tools and cancer databases, including TCGA, GETx, HPA database, GSCALite, UALCAN, ESTIMATE, CIBERSORT, ssGSEA algorithms and SangerBox website, were applied to investigate the associations between PLAU expression and prognosis, genetic alterations, pathway activation, and tumor immunity in pan-cancer. Through cBioPortal and STITCH platforms, the oncogenic role of PLAU and related targeting medicines in BLCA were also explored. We verified the expression of PLAU in pan-cancer cells and its function in bladder cancer cell lines using wet-lab experiments.

Results: PLAU expression levels were significantly higher in most cancer tissues. PLAU had a certain accuracy in the diagnosis of various types of cancers (90 % AUC > 0.700). In BLCA, PLAU has abundant methylated sites and showed statistical differences in clinical features. PLAU was involved in tumor immune infiltration, and especially positively correlated with neutrophil infiltration. High-expressed PLAU indicated poorer prognosis in the BLCA patients receiving Atezolizumab. A high mRNA and protein expression levels of PLAU were observed in pan-cancer cell lines, especially BLCA cells. Knockdown of PLAU inhibited the invasive, proliferative, and aggressive phenotypes of bladder cancer cells. Immunohistochemical staining validated PLAU's higher expression in BLCA tissues than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues. And overexpression of PLAU was associated with more advanced TNM stage, and high infiltrating depth.

Conclusion: Our study revealed that PLAU can serve as a potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker for various malignancies, especially BLCA.

Keywords: Biomarker; Genetics; PLAU; Pan-cancer; Urothelial carcinoma.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Carcinoma, Transitional Cell* / genetics
Humans
Neutrophil Infiltration
Prognosis
Urinary Bladder Neoplasms* / genetics

Substances

PLAU protein, human