High expression of TTC21A predicts unfavorable prognosis and immune infiltrates in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common pathological type of renal cell carcinoma. Tetratricopeptide repeat domain 21A (TTC21A), known as a component of intraflagellar transport complex A which is essential for the function of cilia, However, the role of TTC21A remains unclear in ccRCC. For the first time, we explore the role and potential mechanism of TTC21A in ccRCC based on multiple databases. Methods: TTC21A expression across all TCGA tumor was analyzed via Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) site. The correlation between TTC21A and clinicopathologic characteristics of ccRCC was analyzed with TCGA database. The diagnostic and prognostic value of TTC21A was evaluated by receiver operation characteristic curve, Kaplan-Meier plotter and Cox regression respectively. Moreover, functional enrichment analysis of TTC21A and the co-expression genes were performed by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. The correlation of TTC21A and immune infiltration were evaluated by single sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. Results: Pan-cancer analysis indicated that TTC21A was highly expressed in ccRCC and other cancer. In addition, elevated expression of TTC21A was associated with worse overall survival in ccRCC patients. Functional enrichment analysis showed that TTC21A and the co-expressed genes enriched in glucose metabolism and energy metabolism. Moreover, TTC21A expression was associated with infiltrating levels of dendritic cell, nature killer cell and other immune marker sets. Conclusion: The results of analysis indicate that expression of TTC21A is associated with poor prognosis and immune infiltrating in ccRCC, which suggested TTC21A might be used as a potential predictor and target of treatment in ccRCC.