Abstract

Background

Oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a malignant tumour of the digestive system that is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. With the increased use of immunotherapy in cancer treatment, there is an urgent need to elucidate the immune-related mechanisms in ESCC and other digestive system carcinomas.

Methods

In our study, single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was first performed to analyse the expression profile downloaded from the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Then, via a series of bioinformatic analyses, including the Mann-Whitney test, weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), functional enrichment analysis and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) analysis, we identified target immunocytes and related genes. Finally, we validated the results with the TIMER database.

Results

Our analyses showed that the numbers of infiltrating macrophages were obviously higher in advanced stages in ESCC compared with other types of immunocytes. MEOX2 was identified as a biomarker correlated with macrophage infiltration in ESCC and other types of digestive system carcinomas. And MEOX2 expression was strongly associated with the mRNA expression of colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) and CSF-1 receptor (CSF-1R) in these kinds of carcinomas.

Conclusion

We speculated that MEOX2 could facilitate macrophage infiltration via CSF-1/CSF-1R signalling in ESCC and other kinds of digestive system carcinomas, and MEOX2 might serve as a novel target in prospective tumour immunotherapies.

中文翻译：

---

MEOX2 是一种与食管鳞状细胞癌和其他消化系统癌中巨噬细胞浸润相关的新型生物标志物

摘要

背景

食管鳞状细胞癌 (ESCC) 是一种消化系统恶性肿瘤，在全球范围内与高发病率和死亡率相关。随着免疫疗法在癌症治疗中应用的增加，迫切需要阐明 ESCC 和其他消化系统癌的免疫相关机制。

方法

在我们的研究中，首先进行单样本基因集富集分析 (ssGSEA) 以分析从 NCBI 基因表达综合 (GEO) 数据库下载的表达谱。然后，通过一系列生物信息学分析，包括Mann-Whitney检验、加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA）、功能富集分析和差异表达基因（DEGs）分析，我们确定了目标免疫细胞和相关基因。最后，我们使用 TIMER 数据库验证了结果。

结果

我们的分析表明，与其他类型的免疫细胞相比，ESCC晚期浸润性巨噬细胞的数量明显增加。MEOX2 被确定为与 ESCC 和其他类型消化系统癌中巨噬细胞浸润相关的生物标志物。并且 MEOX2 的表达与这些癌症中集落刺激因子 1 (CSF-1) 和 CSF-1 受体 (CSF-1R) 的 mRNA 表达密切相关。

结论

我们推测 MEOX2 可以通过CSF-1/CSF-1R 信号传导促进 ESCC 和其他类型的消化系统癌中的巨噬细胞浸润，并且 MEOX2 可能作为前瞻性肿瘤免疫治疗的新靶点。