Background: The mechanisms involved in the malignant progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) are still inconclusive. Fibrinogen-like protein 1 (FGL1) and LAG3 are a pair of immune checkpoints that create an inhibitory immune microenvironment in tumors. However, other roles of FGL1 in LUAD have not been extensively studied. Our study aims to explore the role of FGL1 in the malignant progression of LUAD and to provide new therapeutic targets and strategies for LUAD treatment.
Methods: Differential gene expression of FGL1 was analyzed using the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), Oncomine, UALCAN, and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. A pan-cancer analysis was conducted using the Oncomine, TIMER, and UALCAN databases. A total of 140 tumor tissues and paired normal tissues were collected, IHC and immunofluorescence staining were used to explore the expression of FGL1. GeneMANIA database and STRING database were used to analyze gene-gene interaction and protein-protein interaction, respectively. A mutation analysis was conducted using the cBioPortal database, and an immune infiltration analysis was conducted using the TIMER database. A survival analysis was carried out using the GEPIA and PrognoScan database. The knockdown of FGL1 was confirmed by western blot (WB) and immunofluorescence staining. Cell proliferation was tested by cell cycle analysis and real-time cell analysis. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to explore the differential genes of FGL1 knockdown in LUAD cells.
Results: Multiple databases showed that FGL1 was highly expressed in LUAD. The results of IHC indicated that FGL1 was highly expressed in the cytoplasm of LUAD cells. FGL1 was negatively associated with immune infiltration in LUAD. The main mutation of FGL1 is deep deletion, the altered group and high expression group indicated poor prognosis. The downregulation of FGL1 lead to a significantly decreased percentage of PC9 cells in S phase, but had little effect on the proliferation of Jurkat T cells. RNA-seq and GSEA analysis indicated that the differential genes were mainly enriched in MYC-target genes, which suggested that the downregulation of FGL1 inhibited cell proliferation by regulating MYC-target genes.
Conclusions: FGL1 exerts in LUAD proliferation in addition to immune regulation. The downregulation of FGL1 inhibits the proliferation of LUAD cells by regulating MYC-target genes. Thus, FGL1 may be a novel therapeutic target in LUAD.
Keywords: Immune checkpoint; fibrinogen-like protein 1 (FGL1); lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD); proliferation.
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