Expression Pattern and Clinical Significance of E2F Transcription Factors in Skin Cutaneous Melanoma

Author(s): Liuchang Tan, Yuangang Lu

Introduction: E2F is a group of genes that encodes a family of transcription factors in higher eukaryotes. Although emerging evidence indicates that E2Fs are implicated in various cancer types, the diverse expression patterns and prognostic values of E2F transcription factors in SKCM have yet to be elucidated. The purpose of this study was to enhance our knowledge concerning the role of E2Fs in SKCM patients.. Methods: GEPIA, The Human Protein Atlas, TIMER, cBioPortal, GeneMANIA, DAVID 6.8 and KEGG PATHWAY Database were utilized in this study.

Results: We observed a statistically significant increased messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in E2F1/3/5/7 compared with matched normal tissues. A significant correlation was observed between the expression of E2F7/8 and the pathological stage of SKCM patients. In addition, survival analysis revealed that SKCM patients with low transcriptional levels of E2F1/2/3/6 were associated with a significantly better prognosis. Moreover, immune infiltrations analysis showed that transcriptional levels and somatic copy number alterations (SCNA) in E2F family were significantly correlated with several immune cell recruitments, including B cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells. The function of differentially expressed E2Fs and their neighboring genes were mainly linked to P53 signaling pathway, cell cycle, and oocyte meiosis.

Conclusions: Taken together, our results may provide novel strategies for the selection of prognostic biomarkers and immunotherapeutic targets in SKCM patients.