Analysis of T lymphocyte-related biomarkers in pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Background: Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most lethal cancers.

Objective: This study aimed to analyze T cell-related biomarkers and their molecular network in pancreatic cancer.

Methods: RNAseq sequencing data and clinical data of pancreatic cancer were obtained from TCGA database. The STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumours using Expression data (ESTIMATE) algorithm was used to screen the DEGs related to the tumor immune cells. The pearson correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationships between DEGs and T cells. Additionally, the T cell-related DEGs were subjected to protein-protein interaction, competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), and chemical small molecule-target network construction. Furthermore, the prognosis-associated DEGs were screened.

Results: A total of 412 stromal score-associated and 312 immune score-associated DEGs were obtained. From these DEGs, 50 CD4⁺ T cell-related genes and 13 CD8⁺ T cell-related genes were selected. The PPI networks associated with immune cell-related genes were constructed and found that CD22, SELL, and OLR1 had higher degrees in the PPI network. The number of ceRNA regulatory relation pairs obtained from CD4⁺ T cells and CD8⁺ T cells were 59 and 48, respectively. Additionally, both CD4⁺ T cell- and CD8⁺ T cell-related genes predicted 29 small molecules. CXCL9 and GIMAP7 were screened out from CD4⁺ T cell-related genes, which were related with the survival of pancreatic cancer.

Conclusion: We mapped T cell-related gene profile in pancreatic cancer and constructed their potential regulatory network.

Keywords: Gene; Immune; Pancreatic cancer; Prognosis; T cell.