Clinical implication and immunological landscape analyses of ANLN in pan-cancer, a new target for cancer research

Background: Actin-binding protein anillin (ANLN) is mainly involved in the process of cytokinesis and known to be dysregulated in diverse cancers. However, the role of ANLN in pan-cancer prognosis and tumor immunity remains unclear. Methods Gene expression profiles of 31 solid tumors were fetched from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. ANLN mRNA and protein expression were quantified via quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Protein expression of ANLN was further confirmed in Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis were utilized to assess the prognostic value of ANLN in different tumors. The association between ANLN and different immune gene markers and infiltration cells were analyzed via ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT. A BLCA immunotherapy cohort: IMvigor (210) was utilized to confirm the role of ANLN in immune response. Results ANLN upregulation was detected in 21 types of cancers and was correlated with poor overall survival (OS), disease-free interval (DFI) and progression-free interval (PFI) in most cancers except in THYM. Additionally, correlation analysis revealed a significant association between ANLN expression and tumor mutation burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), immune cells infiltration and immune checkpoint genes in most cancer types. A BLCA immunotherapy cohort confirmed that patients with higher ANLN level had better immune responses and longer OS. Conclusions ANLN may serve as a prognostic biomarker for pan-cancer. ANLN upregulation is associated with higher TMB, MSI and immune cell infiltration in multiple types of tumors, shedding new light for cancer treatment.