Open Access

ARTICLE

Apolipoprotein C1 promotes tumor progression in gastric cancer

QIOU GU, TIAN ZHAN, XIAO GUAN, CHUILIN LAI, NA LU, GUOGUANG WANG, LEI XU, XIANG GAO, JIANPING ZHANG^*

Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210009, China

* Corresponding Author: Jianping Zhang,

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Transcriptome Analysis in Tumor Microenvironment and Tumor Heterogeneity)

Oncology Research 2023, 31(3), 287-297. https://doi.org/10.32604/or.2023.028124

Received 30 November 2022; Accepted 15 February 2023; Issue published 22 May 2023

Abstract

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is a malignancy with the worst prognosis that seriously threatens human health, especially in East Asia. Apolipoprotein C1 (apoc1) belongs to the apolipoprotein family. In addition, apoc1 has been associated with various tumors. However, its role in GC remains unclear. Methods: Firstly, we quantified its expression in GC and adjacent tumor tissues, using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Next, we assessed cell invasion and migration abilities. Finally, we revealed the role of apoc1 in the tumor microenvironment (TME), immune cell infiltration and drug sensitivity. Results: Firstly, in TCGA database, it has been shown that elevated expression of apoc1 was identified in various cancers, including GC, then we found that high expression of apoc1 was significantly correlated with poor prognosis in GC. Histologically, apoc1 expression is proportional to grade, cancer stage, and T stage. The experimental results showed that apoc1 promoted cell invasion and migration. Then GO, KEGG, and GSEA pathway analyses indicated that apoc1 may be involved in the WNT pathway and immune regulation. Furthermore, we found out the tumor-infiltrating immune cells related to apoc1 in the tumor microenvironment (TME) using TIMER. Finally, we investigated the correlation between apoc1 expression and drug sensitivity, PD-1 and CTLA-4 therapy. Conclusions: These results suggest that apoc1 participates in the evolution of GC, and may represent a potential target for detection and immunotherapy in GC.

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