Overexpression of RAB34 associates with tumor aggressiveness and immune infiltration in glioma

Abstract

Abstract RAB34 (RAB34, member RAS oncogene family) is aberrantly expressed in various cancers and exhibits oncogenic properties. However, its function in glioma remains largely unclear. In the present study, we collected 697 RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset and 325 RNA-seq data from Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) dataset. Bioinformatics and PCR analysis showed that RAB34 expression was positively related to the glioma tumor grade and predicted poor outcomes for glioma patients. Additionally, RAB34 expression was significantly up-regulated in classical and mesenchymal subtypes, and isolated diastolic hypertension wild-type gliomas. Moreover, RAB34 expression was remarkably correlated with inflammatory activities, immune infiltration, and immune checkpoints in glioma. In vitro experiments demonstrated that inhibition of RAB34 restrained the growth, migration, as well as invasion of glioma cells, and reversed the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. Our findings established RAB34 as a novel progression-related biomarker and a possible immunotherapy target for glioma.