RPS24 Is Associated with a Poor Prognosis and Immune Infiltration in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver malignancy, with increased mortality and morbidity. Accumulating evidence suggested that 40S ribosomal protein S24 (RPS24) is related to malignant outcomes and progression. However, the role of RPS24 remains unclear in HCC. The mRNA and protein expression pattern of RPS24 in HCC was explored and confirmed based on the bioinformatics analysis and histological examination. The correlation between RPS24 expression and clinicopathological features, diagnostic value, prognosis, methylation status, and survival were evaluated. Then, we divided the HCC cohort into two groups based on the expression of RPS24, and performed the functional enrichment and immune cells infiltration analysis of RPS24. Furthermore, in vivo and in vitro experiments were performed to investigate the effect of RPS24 on HCC cells. RPS24 was observed to be elevated in HCC samples. RPS24 overexpression or RPS24 promoter methylation contributed to an unfavorable prognosis for HCC patients. The genes in the high RPS24 expression group were mainly enriched in DNA replication, cell cycle E2F targets, and the G2M checkpoint pathway. Moreover, the expression level of RPS24 was significantly related to immune infiltration and immunotherapy response. Our experiments also demonstrated that RPS24 knockdown suppressed the growth of HCC cells and tumor proliferation of the xenograft model. Therefore, RPS24 can be a potential adverse biomarker of HCC prognosis acting through facilitating cell proliferation and the formation of an immunosuppressive microenvironment in HCC. Targeting RPS24 may offer a promising therapeutic option for HCC management.

Ribosomal protein L22 like 1: a promising biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma

“… 43 Notably, some ribosomal proteins are involved in regulating immune infiltration in the TME. 20 , 44 However, the effect of RPL22L1 in the immune infiltration of LUAD is not fully clear. Our study was the first to reveal that RPL22L1 expression was negatively correlated with the majority of immune cell infiltration, including NK cells, DC cells, B cells, macrophages, CD4+ T cells.…”

“… 18 It has been found that RPs are involved in regulating immune cell infiltration in the TME. 19 , 20 Futhermore, a study has demonstrated that RPL22L1 affects the development of lymphocytes. 21 Therefore, it is worth investigating whether RPL22L1 is involved in the regulation of the TME, which in turn influences LUAD progression.…”

Autophagy‐dependent alternative splicing of ribosomal protein S24 produces a more stable isoform that aids in hypoxic cell survival

“…Alternative splicing has been proposed as the 11th hallmark of cancer [17], and we showed that RPS24L levels correlate with hypoxia in human prostate tumor samples [14]. Without reference to splicing isoforms or hypoxia, other groups have found that global RPS24 levels are high in prostate [18] and hepatocellular cancer [19], and show that RPS24 is an oncoprotein [20]. Therefore, we set out to investigate the stimuli and mechanisms that contribute to the increase of RPS24L relative abundance compared to RPS24S and the biological impact this has on hypoxic cells.…”

Long-read sequencing shows complex structural variants in tumor-stage mycosis fungoides

“…Prediction of the functional effects of these fusion genes is challenging, but individual components, like the ribosomal protein 24 (RPS24) can act as oncoproteins, e.g. in different colon and prostate cancer cell lines (Kazerounian et al, 2016;Li et al, 2023;Wang et al, 2015).…”