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Research Paper|Volume 16, Issue 19|pp 12781—12805

Integrative pan-cancer analysis reveals the prognostic and immunotherapeutic value of ALKBH7 in HNSC

Tianyu Wang1, Bojian Lin1,2, Boyu Cai1, Zhiwen Cao1,3, Caiquan Liang1, Shunyu Wu4, Enhong Xu5, Li Li1, Hu Peng1, Huanhai Liu1
  • 1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200003, P.R. China
  • 2Department of Health Management Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200438, P.R. China
  • 3Department of Otolaryngology, Jinshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 201508, P.R. China
  • 4Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200011, P.R. China
  • 5Department of Otolaryngology, Naval Medical Center, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200052, P.R. China
* Equal contribution
Received: October 19, 2023Accepted: June 3, 2024Published: June 29, 2024
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205981

Copyright: © 2024 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The AlkB homolog 7 (ALKBH7) is a nonheme iron (II) α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase superfamily member, which may affect the progression of several types of human cancer. However, the biological effect, especially the immune-related effect, of ALKBH7 in HNSC remains unclear. Herein, several databases were employed at first to assess the different expression of ALKBH7 as well as their relationship to the prognosis, RNA modification, DNA methylation modulation, immune microenvironment and chemotherapeutic responses of various types of cancers. We found that ALKBH7 was expressed differentially in pan-cancer, and correlated with a satisfied prognosis especially in HNSC. The expression of ALKBH7 was also associated with the level of immune cell infiltration, TMB, MSI, HRD, MMR deficiency, and DNA methyltransferases in a wide variety of cancers, which might be potentially related to the responses against chemotherapeutic agents. Next, the role of ALKBH7 in HNSC was further investigated. Western blot and immunohistochemical analysis in HNSC patients from the NMU cohort showed the reduced ALKBH7 expression level in tumor tissues. In vitro experiments of cell migration, invasion, and proliferation showed a potential protective effect of ALKBH7 in HNSC. Collectively, ALKBH7 might play a protective role in the development and progression of multiple cancers by affecting the metabolism and immune cell infiltration, especially HNSC, which could be a potential biomarker to predict prognosis and chemotherapeutic response.