Study Of RNF24 In The Diagnosis,Treatment And Prognosis Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background and Purpose: Liver cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and an important threat to human health.The most common pathological type is hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),which accounts for about 90%.There are many causes of HCC,which are related to hepatitis B virus(HBV),alcohol consumption,Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH),aflatoxin,etc.Clinical treatment of HCC is mainly surgical resection,supplemented by chemotherapy,various targeted drugs and immunotherapy drugs.However,there are still enormous challenges in the treatment of HCC patients.In order to improve the survival rate of HCC patients,it is crucial to explore potential molecular markers with prognostic value.Ring finger protein 24(RNF24)is an important member of the RNF family and is involved in many important biological processes,but its role in HCC has not been fully clarified.Therefore,we used bioinformatics methods to explore the role of RNF24 gene in HCC,analyze its possible molecular mechanism,and become a potential target for targeted therapy,which will help in the diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of HCC.Methods and Materials: We first downloaded and collated HCC transcriptome data and clinical data from the Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)database,using R software(version: 3.6.3)Perform proportional hazards model(Cox)analysis of expression level,Kaplan-Meier(KM)survival analysis,correlation of clinical features,univariate and multiunivariate Cox analysis.Then,we studied the Gene Ontology(GO),the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)and the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis(GSEA)to analyse relevant functions and pathways.Tumor microenvironment(TME)score,Tumor mutation burden(TMB),immune infiltration,immune checkpoints,immunophenoscore(IPS)and drug sensitivity were analyzed to explore the mechanism of RNF24.Results: Our results showed that RNF24 expression in the TCGA database was significantly increased in HCC,and overall survival(OS)was shorter with high expression(p<0.01),correlated with clinical characteristics such as gender,pathological grade,pathological stage and clinical stage.Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses identified RNF24 as an independent prognostic factor(p<0.01).The results of enrichment analysis showed that the expression of RNF24 might be related to immune response,biological transport,metabolism of amino acid,metabolism of fatty acid and signal interaction between cells.The expression level of RNF24 was closely correlated with TME score and TMB,positively correlated with immune infiltration of macrophage M0,activated dendritic cells and memory B cells,and positively correlated with immune checkpoints such as CD276,GALS9 and NRP1(p<0.005).In terms of clinical treatment,low expression levels of RNF24 in ctla4-negative-pd1-negative(p<0.001)and ctla4-positive-pd1-negative(p=0.015)showed higher IPS values,indicating higher immunogenicity and better immunotherapy response;At the same time,the expression of RNF24 was closely related to drug sensitivity such as paclitaxel and Sunitinib(p<0.001).Conclusion: This study found that the expression level of RNF24 gene in HCC was significantly increased,which is closely related to clinical characteristics and is an independent risk factor affecting the prognosis of patients with HCC.In HCC,RNF24 may be involved in immune response,biological transport,substance metabolism and signaling interactions between cells,and is closely related to TME,TMB,immune infiltration,immune checkpoints and immunotherapy,which can be used as a potential biomarker for diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of HCC.