ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Cancer Genetics and Oncogenomics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1652142
Identification and validation of three tumor suppressors associated with immune response of acute myeloid leukemia
Provisionally accepted
- Central People’s Hospital of Zhanjiang, Zhanjiang, China
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Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disorder marked by irregular expansion and maturation, giving rise to the aggregation of immature myeloid precursor cells. Although most patients achieve remission with initial treatment, the majority of relapses lead to a poorer overall survival. The bone marrow (BM) immune microenvironment has been proven to significantly affect the progression of AML. However, the mechanisms that cause the imbalance of immune cell subsets and phenotypes stay partially obscure. Therefore, this research sought to explore the immune regulatory genes and to determine their role in AML. Methods: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained through differential analysis of the AML cohort. Enrichment analyses were applied to explore their biological functions. Weighted Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) was performed to identify the key module of AML. ROC curve was performed to identify hub genes with good predictive power. Using Cibersort and Estimate algorithm to assess the correlation between hub genes and the immune microenvironment of AML. Verify the impact of hub genes expression on the prognosis of AML through prognostic traits and clinical samples Results: Through differential analysis and WGCNA, 55 genes were identified as markedly related to the development of AML. Mapped ROC curves, three hub genes were verified: CCR7, SLC16A6, and MS4A1, which have high diagnostic value for the AML. Additionally, an imbalanced immune microenvironment was found to be common in AML. Three hub genes were significantly associated with immune components, including immune cells and immunomodulatory factors. Ultimately, through the validation of clinical samples and the analysis of prognostic characteristics, it was confirmed that three genes were reduced in AML patients, and their high expressed suggested a favorable prognosis. Conclusions: Our study identified and validated SLC16A6, CCR7, and MS4A1 as tumor suppressors implicated in AML progression and related to immune cell infiltration.
Keywords: Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Tumor immune microenvironment, Weighted Co-expressionNetwork Analysis, tumor suppressor, immune response
Received: 23 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pan, Wu, Liu, Chen, Xia, Ma, Wen and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Guocai Wu, Central People’s Hospital of Zhanjiang, Zhanjiang, China
Zhigang Yang, Central People’s Hospital of Zhanjiang, Zhanjiang, China
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