Relationship between up-regulation of DTYMK expression and immune infiltration for the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma

Background: Deoxythymidylate kinase (DTYMK) is a rate-limiting enzyme in pyrimidine metabolism. Crucially, it is overexpressed in a variety of tumors and is associated with poor prognosis in liver cancer. The role of DTYMK in lung adenocarcinoma remains poorly understood, particularly with respect to immune infiltration. Methods: The present study aimed to compare the expression of DTYMK between normal tissues, lung adenocarcinoma, and other cancer types using data obtained via The Cancer Genome Atlas, Tumor Immune Estimation Resource 2.0, Gene Expression Database of Normal and Tumor Tissues 2, and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). The prognostic value of DTYMK in patients with lung adenocarcinoma was evaluated using GEPIA and Kaplan–Meier plotter. STRING and GeneMANIA were employed to assess protein and gene interaction with DTYMK. R software and TISIDB were used to analyze the correlation between DTYMK expression and immune infiltration. Finally, we validated DTYMK protein expression in lung adenocarcinoma using the UALCAN and HPA databases. Results: DTYMK expression was significantly increased in various cancer and lung adenocarcinoma tissues (p < 0.05), and was associated with poor prognosis (p < 0.05) in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, DTYMK was negatively associated with the vast majority of immune cells in lung adenocarcinoma. Conclusions: Increased expression of DTYMK is associated with poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma patients. DTYMK may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker in lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, DTYMK may influence the progression and prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma by influencing the immune microenvironment of tumors.