A novel biomarker TLCD1 correlates with prognosis and immune infiltrates in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Background The HCC has seen a spike in the morbidity and the mortality rate in recent times. This calls for an urgent understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of the HCC and to speed up the quest for the search of the target molecules to ensure quick diagnosis and prognosis subsequently. TLCD1 is a gene only reported in membrane fluidity. The variations in the TLCD1 expression levels related to the infiltration of the immune cells in HCC and the prognosis shall be examined initially. Methods The data received from TCGA shall provide the details of the gene expression, clinicopathology analysis and immune infiltration, along with the enrichment analysis. Moreover, we also performed additional analysis of the bioinformatics available. The immune responses of TLCD1 expression in HCC were analyzed using CIBERSORT and TIMER, while the statistical analysis was handled through R. Results Higher TLCD1 expression is strongly correlated with a poor prognostic and worse overall survival. Specifically, the increase in TLCD1 expression positively correlated with Tregs cells and T cells CD4 memory resting. The pathways strongly associated with TLCD1 was fatty acid metabolism and PPAR signaling pathway. Conclusions From the outcome of the study, it could be surmised that TLCD1 could be considered as a potential target for future treatment of HCC, as it was observed to be associated with the tumor-infiltrating immune cells in tumor microenvironment, establishing itself as a novel potential prognostic biomarker in HCC.