Pan-cancer analysis of DCBLD1 and its association with the diagnosis, immunotherapy, and prognosis of cervical cancer
Cervical cancer (CESC) is a leading cause of death attributed to cancer worldwide. Advanced-stage cervical cancer presents unique challenges, such as few treatment modalities. Though DCBLD1 has been earlier connected to a variety of cancers, there has been no extensive investigation on DCBLD1 regarding cervical cancer. This study seeks to assess the expression and prognostic significance of DCBLD1 in multiple cancer types, heavily relying on cervical cancer, as well as its implications on immune modulation. The pan-cancer expression of box-like genes in DCBLD1 was investigated in 33 cancer types using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE). Survival analyses involving Overall Survival (OS) and Progression-Free Survival (PFS) were conducted to evaluate the relationship between DCBLD1 expression and the prognosis of these neoplasms. Furthermore, immune infiltration gene co-expression and tumor microenvironment (TME) analyses were performed. In vitro assays in cervical cancer cell lines were done to analyze the functional impact of silencing DCBLD1 on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. DCBLD1 was significantly overexpressed in 16 cancer types, including cervical cancer, and was associated with poor prognosis for several of these cancer types. In CESC, the expression of DCBLD1 was significantly associated with shorter OS and PFS. While immune infiltration analysis showed a significant association for DCBLD1 with several immune cells, including CD4+ memory T cells and macrophages, the functional assays demonstrated that silencing DCBLD1 in cervical cancer cells inhibited their cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, implicating it in tumor progression. DCBLD1 could serve as an amendable biomarker of poor prognosis in cervical cancer and other cancers whose high expression level correlates with immune infiltration, which may suggest its role in modulating the tumor microenvironment. This shows that targeting DCBLD1 could prove effective as a potential therapeutic modality in conjunction with other immune-based therapies for cervical cancer.