Unveiling the Promising Prognostic and Immunological Role of MRTO4 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Correlation to Immune Infiltrates

Abstract

Abstract Background MRT4 Homolog, Ribosome Maturation Factor (MRTO4), is known to play a role in ribosomal biogenesis, a process that is often upregulated in cancer cells. However, its impact in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its correlation with immune infiltration is less well understood. Here, we explored the prognostic and immunological role of MRTO4 in HCC. Methods The primary dataset was sourced from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), GSE121248 and GSE45267and subjected to analysis through R software. MRTO4 expression was explored using the TCGA database, and correlations between MRTO4 and cancer immune characteristics were analyzed via the TISIDB databases. Results Generally, MRTO4 is predominantly overexpressed and has diagnostic and prognostic value in HCC. Upregulated MRTO4 was associated with poorer overall survival, poorer disease-specific survival, and progression-free interval. Mechanistically, we identified a hub gene that included a total of 50 MRTO4-related genes, which were tightly associated with Spliceosome pathways in HCC patients. MRTO4 expression was positively correlated with Th2 cells, NK CD56 + cells negatively correlated with the Th17 cells, NK cells, Neutrophils, DC cells, CD8 T cells and cytotoxic cells. MRTO4 expression was negatively correlated with the expression of immuno-stimulators (KDR, CD274, IL6R and TMEM173) and chemokines /chemokine receptors (CCL21, CXCL12, CCR4, and CX3CR1) in HCC. Conclusion MRTO4 may be used as a promising biomarker for determining prognosis in HCC. Furthermore, it might modulate tumor immunity in HCC by altering the expression of specific chemokines, chemokine receptors, and immunoinhibitory and immunostimulatory molecules, which correlated to immune infiltration.