DNALI1 is a prognosis-related biomarker and correlates with immune infiltrates in low grade glioma.

Background: Dynein axonemal light intermediate chain 1 (DNALI1) is a component of axonemal dyneins and its role in cancer progression is not known.

Objective: The influence of DNALI1 expression on the prognosis of low-grade gliomas (LGG) and the possible mechanisms of DNALI1 in promoting the progression of LGG was investigated by applying multiple bioinformatics analyses using datasets from TCGA, GTEx, CPTAC, and CGGA.

Methods: The expression of DNALI1 in different tumor tissues including LGG was investigated. GO functional annotation, KEGG pathway analysis, and GSEA enrichment analysis were performed. The correlation between DNALI1 and prognosis, tumor microenvironment (TME) and immune checkpoints in LGG were assessed.

Results: DNALI1 is mainly expressed in malignant cells in the TME of LGG and positively correlated with the development of LGG. DNALI1 expression is negatively correlated with isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutations and 1p/19q co-deletion. High DNALI1 expression is associated with poor prognosis in LGG. DNALI1 may promote LGG progression through multiple immune-related pathways. The expression of DNALI1 is positively correlated with the infiltration of certain types of immune cells and the expression of some immune checkpoints.

Conclusions: DNALI1 is a potential prognostic marker for LGG, and high expression of DNALI1 may play an important role in maintaining the immunosuppressive microenvironment of LGG.