Prognostic Significance and Immune Cell Infiltration Analysis of CXC Chemokines in Glioblastoma

Abstract

Objective To analyze the expression of CXC chemokines in glioblastoma (GBM), and investigate their prognostic value and potential roles as therapeutic targets. Methods Differential expression and prognostic value of CXC chemokines in GBM were obtained in GEPIA. The String database was used to predict neighbor genes and construct the protein to protein interaction (PPI) network. GO analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were executed by DAVID tools. TRRUST and LinkedOmics were used to predict transcription factor and kinase targets for CXC chemokines. Finally, we discussed the correlation of immune cell infiltration and tumor purity with differential expression of CXC chemokines in GBM. Results CXC2/3/8/9/10/11/16 expression was significantly up-regulated in GBM, and CXC3/8 were significantly associated with the poor prognosis of GBM patients. Differentially expressed chemokines and their adjacent genes are mainly enriched in the immune regulatory and apoptosis functions and pathways. There was correlation between chemokines expression and infiltration of six immune cells. Conclusion CXCL3/8 could be the potential prognostic markers for GBM patients. CXC chemokines are related to GBM immunity.

Keywords

• glioblastoma
• biomarkers
• bioinformatics
• tumor microenvironment
• chemokines
• immune cells