In silico analyses of pan-squamous cell carcinoma unveiled the immunological implications of MRPL13, which had previously been under-recognized

Yan Liang; Shuo He; Yiyi Tan; Qing Liu; Feng Zhao; Tao Liu; Conggai Huang; Xiaomei Lu; Shutao Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23582

In silico analyses of pan-squamous cell carcinoma unveiled the immunological implications of MRPL13, which had previously been under-recognized

Heliyon. 2023 Dec 14;10(1):e23582. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23582. eCollection 2024 Jan 15.

Authors

Yan Liang¹, Shuo He¹, Yiyi Tan², Qing Liu², Feng Zhao², Tao Liu³, Conggai Huang⁴, Xiaomei Lu², Shutao Zheng²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, Basic Medicine College, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830017, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Pathogenesis, Prevention, Treatment of Central Asian High Incidence Diseases, Clinical Medical Research Institute, First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, China.
³ Department of Clinical Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Urumqi, China.
⁴ Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, China.

Abstract

The involvement of the mitochondrial ribosomal protein 13 (MRPL13) gene in the development of adenocarcinoma has been previously reported. However, the clinicopathological significance of MRPL13 in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) remains poorly understood. To gain insight into the clinicopathological and immunological implications of MRPL13 expression in SCC, we conducted a bioinformatic analysis utilizing various available databases, including TIMER 2.0, Xiantao academic tool and TISIDB, attempting to evaluate the abnormal expression, prognosis and immunological correlation of MRPL13 in the pan-SCC setting. Subsequently, we conducted experimental verification using an esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissue array subjected to multiplexed immunofluorescent (mIF) staining. The ESCC tissue array we used consists of 93 dots of ESCC and 86 dots of matched adjacent normal tissues (ANT). Data from in silico analyses showed that MRPL13 mRNA is significantly up-regulated and correlated with infiltration of CD8⁺ T cells in pan-SCC. However, in silico analyses did not support the prognostic role of MRPL13 in SCC. Consistently, data from the ESCC tissue array showed that MRPL13 was remarkably elevated in ESCC tissues relative to ANT in stroma, which was controlled by pan-cytokeratin (pan-CK) staining. In the epithelia, no significant difference was identified between ESCC and ANT. Furthermore, MRPL13 expression markedly correlated with the infiltration of CD8⁺ T cells in the stromal region but not in the epithelial region. Prognostically, no significant association was observed between MRPL13 expression and overall survival, regardless of epithelial or stromal section. Through these pan-SCC analyses, we have expanded the understanding of MRPL13 previously reported, in particular, underscoring the immunological involvement of MRPL13 in the tumor microenvironment of SCC that has been under-recognized before, suggesting that MRPL13 may regulate the infiltration of CD8⁺ T cells into the SCC microenvironment.

Keywords: Bioinformatics analysis; CD8+ T-cell infiltration; MRPL13; Pan-squamous cell carcinoma; Prognostic.