Comprehensive analysis of immune implication and prognostic value of DHX33 in sarcoma

Abstract

DEAH-box helicase 33 (DHX33) is an RNA helicase that has been identified to promote the progression of a variety of cancers. However, the relationship between DHX33 and sarcoma remains unknown. RNA expression data with clinical information for the sarcoma project was collected from TCGA database. The association between the differential expression of DHX33 and the prognosis for sarcoma was assessed using survival analysis. CIBERSORT was used to evaluate the immune cell infiltration in sarcoma sample tissues. We then further investigated the association between DHX33 and tumor-infiltrating immune cells in sarcoma using the TIMER database. Finally, the immune/cancer-related signaling pathways involved in DHX33 were analyzed using gene set enrichment analysis. High DHX33 expression was discovered to be a poor prognostic indicator in TCGA-SARC. Immune subpopulations in the TCGA-SARC microenvironment are dramatically altered compared to normal tissues. The tumor immune estimation resource analysis revealed a strong correlation between the expression of DHX33 and the abundance of CD8+ T cells and dendritic cells. Changes in copy number also affected neutrophils, macrophages, and CD4+ T cells. According to gene set enrichment analysis, DHX33 may be involved in a number of cancer- and immune-related pathways, such as the JAK/STAT signaling pathway, P53 signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, T cell receptor signaling pathway, complement and coagulation cascades, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. Our study emphasized that DHX33 may be involved in the immune microenvironment of sarcoma and play an important role. As a result, it is possible that DHX33 might serve as an immunotherapeutic target for sarcoma.