Upregulation of the ZWINT expression correlates with prostate cancer progression and immune infiltration

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa), the most prevalent epithelial malignant neoplasm in the male group globally, is the fifth largest cause of cancer-related death in males. ZW10 Interactor (ZWINT) is involved in the chromosome segregation process, which is linked to the formation of several tumor cells. However, its function in PCa remains unknown. Therefore, our aim was to explore the potential mechanisms of ZWINT in PCa progression. We obtained RNA-seq as well as clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA), University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) database. Assessment of ZWINT expression in clinical subgroups, immune infiltration, and prognostic relevance using the R program. Search Tool for Recurring Instances of Neighbouring Genes (STRING) tool was applied to construct a ZWINT co-expression network and the potential biological functions involved in differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were investigated by enrichment analysis. ZWINT was upregulated in prostate cancer tissues and showed to be significantly associated with T stage, N stages, Gleason score (GS), and prognosis of prostate cancer patients. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that ZWINT-related genes were mainly related to cell cycle, meiosis, myogenic fiber synthesis, and muscle contraction. In addition, High-expression of ZWINT may have possessed immunosuppressive effects through adverse regulation of several immune cells and factors. ZWINT is overexpressed in prostate cancer and correlated with immune infiltration, which is expected to be a potential biomarker for PCa prognosis.