Overexpression of Sideroflexin1 (SFXN1) Predicts Worse Overall Survival in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

BackgroundMitochondria are the core organelle of cellular energy and metabolism, also closely related to the growth and survival of cancer cells. This research aimed to discover and evaluate a promising prognostic biomarker, a novel mitochondrial gene—Sideroflexin1 (SFXN1), for lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD).ResultsAnalysis of 594 samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Lung Cancer Cohort, this present study indicated that SFXN1/2/4/5 were overexpressed in LUAD tissue compared with normal lung tissue whereas only the SFXN1 was associated significantly with the overall survival (OS) from the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (p=0.00093), suggesting that SFXN1 could be a potential prognostic biomarker. Furthermore, the logistic regression of the correlation of clinicopathological features and the expression status of SFXN1 from 522 patients with LUAD in TCGA revealed that the expression level of SFXN1 was related to Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), clinical stage, tumor size and lymph nodes invasion (all p<0.05). Additionally, overexpression of SFXN1 remained associated positively and independently with a worse prognosis after the multivariate Cox regression (HR=1.486, p=0.022). Functionally, SFXN1 involved in the cell cycle, specifically in DNA replication and meiosis, ATPase activity and folate-dependent one-carbon metabolism from the outcomes of Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment. ConclusionSFXN1 might promote the proliferation and metabolism of cancer cells and function as a prognostic indicator for LUAD, which may contribute to the development of targeted therapy and the emergence of metabolism-based treatment in clinical practice.