ABL1 Is a Prognostic Marker and Associated with Immune Infiltration in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Rongqiang Liu; Weihao Kong; ZeKun Jiang; Shiyang Zheng; Xiaofeng Yuan; Linsen Ye

doi:10.1155/2021/1379706

ABL1 Is a Prognostic Marker and Associated with Immune Infiltration in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

J Oncol. 2021 Aug 26:2021:1379706. doi: 10.1155/2021/1379706. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Rongqiang Liu^#^{1

2}, Weihao Kong^#³, ZeKun Jiang^#⁴, Shiyang Zheng⁵, Xiaofeng Yuan⁶, Linsen Ye¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hepatic Surgery and Liver Transplantation Center, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, China.
² Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510220, Guangdong, China.
³ Department of Emergency Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230022, China.
⁴ Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510220, Guangdong, China.
⁵ Department of Breast Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510150, China.
⁶ Department of General ICU, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University-LingNan Hospital, Guangzhou 510630, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The role of ABL1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unclear. Therefore, this study aims to explore the potential role of ABL1 in the progression of HCC using bioinformatics methods.

Methods: We analyzed the expression, prognostic potential, and immune cell effect of ABL1 in HCC by using a variety of datasets.

Results: ABL1 is highly expressed in HCC and associated with unfavorable overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Functional network analysis revealed that ABL1 plays an important role in mitochondrial activity, ATP metabolism, protein translation and metabolism, various neurological diseases, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and notch signaling pathway. In addition, we found that ABL1 expression was closely correlated with B cells, CD8 + T cells, CD4 + T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells. Furthermore, ABL1 expression was positively associated with the expression levels of immune checkpoint genes, such as PD-1L, TIM3, TIGIT, and CTLA4.

Conclusion: ABL1 is associated with immune infiltration and prognosis of HCC.