IGLL5 is correlated with tumor-infiltrating immune cells in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract

Renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) account for about 90% of renal tumors, and their major histological subtype is ccRCC (clear cell RCC). Increasing evidence has indicated that the tumor microenvironment plays a significant role in the occurrence and development of ccRCC. In this study, we used ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT computational methods to calculate the proportion of immune and stromal components and the rate of TICs (tumor-infiltrating immune cells) in 539 ccRCC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. By examining the intersection of the differentially expressed genes obtained by the protein-protein interaction network and Cox regression analysis, we identified only one overlapping gene: IGLL5 (immunoglobulin lambda-like polypeptide 5). We report that IGLL5 expression is correlated with TICs. Furthermore, our immunoinfiltration analyses revealed that three types of TIC are positively correlated with IGLL5 expression. IGLL5 may have potential as a prognostic biomarker of ccRCC.

Keywords: CIBERSORT; ESTIMATE; IGLL5; clear cell renal cell carcinoma; tumor microenvironment; tumor-infiltrating immune cells.