Prognostic value and immunological role of NDRG1 gene in pan-cancer

Abstract

Abstract Purpose To investigate the prognostic value of NDRG1 and the relationship between NDRG1 and immunoinfiltration. Meanwhile, the expression of NDRG1 in gastric cancer was investigated.Methods A comprehensive analysis of the relationship between NDRG1 gene and prognosis of various cancers, tumor mutational burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI) and immune cell infiltration was conducted by using a range of bioinformatics methods on the basis of existing public databases as a mean to investigate the potential prognostic value of NDRG1 in pan-carcinoma. At the same time, 40 gastric cancer tissues and paracancer tissue specimens were collected. The expression of NDRG1 in gastric cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were verified by experiments. R software and GraphPad Prism 8 software were used for statistical analysis and mapping.Results NGRG1 was shown to be weakly expressed in BRCA, STAD, THCA, while it was shown to be highly expressed in CHOL, HNSC, KIRC, LIHC and LUSC. The survival rate of patients with high expression of NDRG1 in BRCA, LIHC and LUAD was lower than that of patients with low expression of NDRG1. However, patients with high expression of NDRG1 in KIRC had better survival than those with low expression of NDRG1. The expression of NDPG1 was positively correlated with TMB in CESC, BRCA, ACC, UCEC, SARC, PAAD and KIRC, but negatively correlated with TMB in THCA, SKCM, PRAD, PCPG and LGG. The expression of NDRG1 was positively correlated with MSI in COAD, BRCA, UCEC, SARC, PAAD and LUSC, and negatively correlated with MSI in PRAD. In addition, the results of the study indicated that NDRG1 was low expressed in gastric cancer tissues, high expressed in paracancer tissues and mainly distributed in cytoplasm (P = 0.0002). In terms of the degree of differentiation, the expression level of NDRG1 protein in moderately differentiated and highly differentiated gastric cancer tissues was higher than that in undifferentiated and poorly differentiated groups (P = 0.038). In terms of tumor invasion, NDRG1 expression in T1-T2 group was significantly higher than that in T3-T4 group (P = 0.025). In clinicopathologic stage, the expression of NDRG1 in stage I-II was significantly higher than that in stage III-IV (P = 0.024).Conclusion NDRG1 can be used as a prognostic marker in multiple cancers. NDRG1 was low expressed in gastric cancer tissues and high expressed in paracancer tissues. High expression of NDRG1 was associated with favorable pathological features of gastric cancer, which may be involved in inhibiting the occurrence and development of gastric cancer.