RNASE2 is a prognostic biomarker and is correlated with immune infiltration in glioma

Abstract Ribonuclease A family member 2 (RNASE2) is upregulated in many cancers and has been identified to be involved in the progression of the malignant process. However, the association of RNASE2 with glioma remains unclear. The expression of RNASE2 in glioma was first analyzed based on data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses were used to assess the prognostic value of RNASE2 in glioma. And Kaplan–Meier plots was designed to explore the correlation between RNASE2 expression and the patient prognosis. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed based on the TCGA dataset. The correlation between RNASE2 and immune infiltration was evaluated based on data in the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER). In addition, the results were validated based on the Rembrandt cohort and Gravendeel cohort and real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Our results highlighted that RNASE2 plays a key role as an independent prognostic factor in glioma. RNASE2 expression is associated with grade, IDH status, and 1p/19q codeletion. GSEA revealed that RNASE2 is closely correlated with the immune response. The RNASE2 expression level has significantly positive correlations with levels of infiltrating macrophages, dendritic cells, neutrophils and NK cells in glioma. In conclusion, RNASE2 is a prognostic biomarker and correlates with immune infiltration in glioma.