ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1625734
Pan-Cancer Analysis of PIEZO1: A Promising Biomarker for Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Targeted Therapies
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
- 2The Affiliated Taizhou People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Taizhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Piezo-type mechanosensitive channel component 1 (PIEZO1), a mechanically gated cation channel involved in calcium signaling, has been recognized as a potential oncogene in some cancers. However, its comprehensive pan-cancer role remains unexplored.Methods: This study used The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data to analyze PIEZO1 expression profiles. Diagnostic value was evaluated using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, with primary tumor samples as cases and adjacent normal tissues as controls. Prognostic value was determined through Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses. Clinical correlations were detected using non-parametric tests and logistic regression. Genomic alterations were identified via the cBioPortal database. Functional pathways were analyzed using the R language. The association between PIEZO1 and tumor microenvironment scores (Stromal, Immune, ESTIMATE) or immune checkpoint markers (CD274, CTLA4, LAG3, PDCD1, PDCD1LG2) were analyzed using the R language. Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western Blotting (WB) were performed to quantify PIEZO1 expression in clinical specimens.Colony formation and wound healing assays assessed PIEZO1's in vitro effects on cancer cells, while xenograft models evaluated its in vivo impact on tumor growth.Results: Our analysis revealed that PIEZO1 has diagnostic and prognostic value across different cancer types. Elevated PIEZO1 expression was associated with advanced tumor grade and stage. Genomic alterations in PIEZO1 were found in 4% of pan-cancer patients.Functional enrichment analyses revealed that PIEZO1-coexpressed genes were significantly enriched in ECM-receptor signaling, cell migration, and ion homeostasis. PIEZO1 positively correlated with tumor microenvironment scores and immune checkpoints. Experimental validation confirmed PIEZO1 overexpression in LIHC and its 3 pro-tumorigenic role in vitro/in vivo Conclusion: Our findings indicate that PIEZO1 is a promising marker for the diagnosis, prognosis, and development of targeted pan-cancer therapies.
Keywords: Piezo1, Pan-cancer, Diagnostic biomarker, prognostic biomarker, Bioinformatic analysis
Received: 09 May 2025; Accepted: 22 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Yu, Liang, Wan, Du and Zhu. 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: Pengpeng Zhu, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.