CENPE is a Potentially Key Molecular Biomarker and Therapeutic Target for Lung Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Background: The development of tumors is accompanied by abnormal cell proliferation. Centromere-Associated Protein E (CENPE) is involved in controlling cell proliferation. The purpose of this study is to explore the function of CENPE in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: In this study, we extracted the datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) to analyze the CENPE mRNA expression in tumor and normal tissues of NSCLC. And using the Kaplan–Meier Plotter to explore the correlation between the expression of CENPE and the prognosis of NSCLC patients. Furthermore, we use TIMER2.0 (Shirley Liu Lab, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA) for immune cell infiltration analysis to elucidate the underlying mechanism of CENPE in promoting the progression of NSCLC. To validate the results from the bioinformatic analysis, we collected 86 patient samples of NSCLC and did immunohistochemical staining of CENPE, the cluster of differentiation molecule 11b (CD11b), and CD33. Results: We found that CENPE was highly expressed in lung adenocarcinomas and it was associated with poor prognosis. Further studies revealed that smoking and mutations in the TP53 gene were involved in the regulation of CENPE expression in cancer cells. The high expression of CENPE in tumor cells is involved in the regulation of the composition of tumor microenvironment cells and mainly promotes the infiltration of immunosuppressive cells, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), which may boost the progression of lung adenocarcinoma by inhibiting immune function. Conclusions: Therefore, CENPE can be used as a potential therapeutic target for lung adenocarcinoma.