H2AFX might be a prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Background H2AFX can play a central role in DNA repair, replication, transcription regulation, and chromosomal stability. However, there is little research to explore the expression of H2AFX in cancers. Moreover, the correlation between the expression of H2AFX and tumor immunity, which affects the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is not clear. This article aimed to observe the correlation between H2AFX and tumor tissue infiltration biomarkers in HCC and its prognostic potential in HCC. Method Oncomine and TIMER database were used to assess the expression level of H2AFX mRNA, and GEPIA and Kaplan–Meier databases were used to evaluate its prognostic potential. The TIMER database analyzed the relationship between h2afx expression level and tumor immune cell infiltration markers in liver cancer tissues. Results The results showed that H2AFX was overexpressed in tumor tissues than normal tissues in HCC via analysis, and its expression level was correlated with the survival rate of HCC. Moreover, the expression level of H2AFX was related to various immune biomarkers. These results show that overexpression of H2AFX would reflect the poor prognosis of HCC, and these would also reflect that the gene H2AFX can affect the infiltration of HCC immune cells and then play a role in regulating tumor immunity. Conclusion Our study showed that the gene H2AFX might be a potential poor prognostic biomarker in HCC and might be involved in the infiltration of HCC immune cells.

Overexpression of H2AFX gene in neuroblastoma is associated with worse prognosis

“…It was demonstrated that H2AFX sustains endothelial cells during their proliferation under hypoxia, and thereby H2AFX is important for hypoxia‐driven neovascularisation 40 . High expression of H2AFX has been ascertained in various human tumours, including melanoma, colon carcinoma, fibrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, cervical cancer, glioma, hepatocellular carcinoma and NB 33,41,42 . In this study, H2AFX expression in NB tissues was analysed by immunofluorescence, and a large percentage of positive cells was observed related with unfavourable risk factors such as MYCN amplification and metastatic stage 4.…”

“…40 High expression of H2AFX has been ascertained in various human tumours, including melanoma, colon carcinoma, fibrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, cervical cancer, glioma, hepatocellular carcinoma and NB. 33,41,42 In NB, approximately 15% of localised tumours and 48% of highrisk cases carry loss or imbalance of 11q23, the site including H2AFX locus. [10][11][12] However, our data indicated that increased H2AFX expression was an unfavourable NB prognostic marker.…”

Zinc finger protein 296 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression via inducing interaction between macrophages and B cells

“…PAFAH1B3 is a platelet-activating factor acetyl Hydrolase (PAF-AH), which is involved in glycolysis and lipid synthesis signaling pathway of HCC progress 14 . At the same time, histone H2AFX is highly correlated with immune cell in ltration, such as B cells, TAM, and neutrophils, which might promote HCC 15 . Besides, the downregulation of ZNF296 expression is closely related to the upregulation of MPDZ and ALDH6A1, which might suppress the progression of HCC (Figure S1E) 16,17 .…”