6-phosphofructo-2-kinase is a potential prognostic gene in gastric cancer and associated with immune infiltration

Background: Gastric cancer is a common malignant tumor of digestive system with high morbidity and mortality. Reprogramming of glucose metabolism plays an important role in the occurrence and immune infiltration of gastric cancer.PFKFB3 is an efficient allosteric activator of glycolysis.Therefore, an in-depth understanding of PFKFB3 expression in the gastric cancer microenvironment and its effect on immune cells may help to find new ways to combat gastric cancer, thereby promoting existing therapeutic therapies. Methods We evaluated the expression of PFKFB3 in gastric cancer, its relationship with immune invasion and the value of clinical prognosis by a series of databases such as TCGA (Cancer Genome Atlas) and GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) and in vitro and in vivo experiments. Results PFKFB3 was overexpressed in gastric cancer, up-regulation of PFKFB3 usually predicted poor prognosis, and high PFKFB3 expression in gastric cancer was significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS)).In addition, high expression of PFKFB3 correlates with immune cell infiltration and associated immune markers in the gastric cancer microenvironment.In vitro and in vivo experiments showed that high expression of PFKFB3 could promote the growth and metastasis of gastric cancer cells, and PFKFB3 antagonist treatment could delay the growth of gastric cancer cells. Conclusion High expression of PFKFB3 leads to poor prognosis of gastric cancer, that is, shorter OS and PFS.PFKFB3 is associated with levels of immune infiltration in gastric cancer patients, including B cells, CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, and macrophages.The results showed that PFKFB3 was associated with immune infiltration and could be used as a potential biomarker to predict the prognosis of gastric cancer.In addition, PFKFB3 expression may contribute to the regulation of gastric cancer macrophages, CD8 + T cells, TAM, Th1 cells and Treg, and is a potential biomarker for gastric cancer treatment, revealing the correlation between glucose metabolism reprogramming and gastric cancer immunotherapy.