Overexpression of TAGLN2 regulated by non-coding RNAs refering to poor prognosis and tumor immune cell infiltration in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Transgelin-2 (TAGLN2) is an actin-binding protein. Its high expression also has a potential role in many malignant diseases. However, the relationship between its expression and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its relevance to immunity remains unclear. In this study, data from the Oncomine database, TCGA database and GEPIA database were used to analyze the expression of TGALN2 in hepatocellular carcinoma. RT-PCR, qPCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry were used to detect TAGLN2 expression in HCC tissues.TAGLN2 expression was upregulated in HCC and is a potential oncogene in HCC.Overexpression of TAGLN2 was strongly correlated with pathological stage, grade, and T-type.Cox analysis revealed that TAGLN2 was an independent risk factor for HCC prognosis. Using the Kaplan-Meier method, HCC patients with upregulated TAGLN2 expression were shown to have a poorer prognosis. Evidence was obtained using GSEA that TAGLN2 expression was closely associated with immune pathways. Subsequently, the Starbase database was used to predict the non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that regulate TAGLN2 overexpression, and the SNHG16–miR-22-3P axis was identified as the most valuable upstream pathway for TAGLN2 in HCC. Next, we estimated the differences in immune infiltration of 22 tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) in all HCC samples using the CIBERSORT algorithm. The results showed that the immune cells closely associated with TAGLN2 were plasma cells, CD8 T cells and M0 macrophages. TAGLN2 was positively correlated with PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA4 using the TIMER database analysis. Our results suggest that high expression of TAGLN2, regulated by ncRNAs, is associated with poor prognosis and tumor immune cell infiltration in HCC.