A comprehensive pan-cancer analysis revealing SPAG6 as a novel diagnostic, prognostic and immunological biomarker in tumor

Xiaofei Li; Yue Wang; Xiaoyi Li; Ligang Kong; Juan J Díez; Haibo Wang; Daogong Zhang

doi:10.21037/gs-24-157

A comprehensive pan-cancer analysis revealing SPAG6 as a novel diagnostic, prognostic and immunological biomarker in tumor

Gland Surg. 2024 Jun 30;13(6):999-1015. doi: 10.21037/gs-24-157. Epub 2024 Jun 27.

Authors

Xiaofei Li^#^{1

2

3}, Yue Wang^#⁴, Xiaoyi Li^{1

2

3}, Ligang Kong^{1

2

3}, Juan J Díez⁵, Haibo Wang^{1

2

3}, Daogong Zhang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Shandong Provincial ENT Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
² Shandong Provincial Vertigo & Dizziness Medical Center, Jinan, China.
³ Shandong Medical Health Key Laboratory of Vertigo & Vestibular Medicine, Jinan, China.
⁴ Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
⁵ Department of Endocrinology, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Puerta de Hierro Segovia de Arana, Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: There have been studies on the role of sperm-associated antigen 6 (SPAG6) in cytoskeleton formation and growth cone stability, but it is also unknown how spag6 affect tumor growth and development. The aim of this study was to clarify the role of SPAG6 in pan-cancer, with some findings about thyroid carcinoma (THCA) validated through experiments.

Methods: We examined the role of SPAG6 in pan-cancer, with the data being collected from databases. Further analysis was conducted to assess its correlations with prognosis, gene heterogeneity, stemness, and tumor immunity. The interacting proteins of SPAG6 were also identified, and gene ontology enrichment analysis was performed to determine its biological function. We preliminarily confirmed the role of SPAG6 via in vitro experiments and immunofluorescence staining.

Results: This study found that SPAG6 expression was differentially expressed in cancers and at various tumor stages and grades. In stomach and esophageal carcinoma (STES), stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD), kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC), lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), and adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), SPAG6 expression was correlated with gender. SPAG6 expression was also found to be correlated with prognostic value, with low expression being associated with poor prognosis. Furthermore, SPAG6 expression was positively linked with immune-related cells in HNSC, chemokine receptors in LUSC, and immune checkpoint genes in THCA. Furthermore, SPAG6 overexpression suppressed the malignant phenotypes of THCA cells, manifested by slower proliferation and decreased migration. The different SPAG6 expression in THCA led to different malignant phenotypes, which are involved in the upregulation of DNA repair, MYC targets, peroxisome, and G2M checkpoint.

Conclusions: SPAG6 plays a significant role as an oncogene and can be used as a marker to predict the prognosis of cancer. SPAG6 influences both the tumor immune infiltration and microenvironment, making it a promising immunotherapeutic target for tumor therapy.

Keywords: Sperm-associated antigen 6 (SPAG6); immune infiltration; pan-cancer; tumor immunity; tumor microenvironment (TME).