ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
This article is part of the Research TopicTumor-Associated Macrophages and Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in the Tumor MicroenvironmentView all 14 articles
Expression Characteristics, Prognostic Value, and Immune-Related Analysis of PPP2R1A in Lung Adenocarcinoma
Provisionally accepted
- 1Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the Affiliated Hospital, Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, Baise, China
- 2Modern Industrial College of Biomedicine and Great Health, Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, Baise, China
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Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is a major subtype of lung cancer with poor prognosis. This study investigates the expression, prognostic significance, and functional role of the PPP2R1A gene in LUAD. Using the Xiantao Academic Online tool, we observed a significant upregulation of PPP2R1A in 26 cancers, including LUAD, confirmed by both unpaired and paired analysis (P < 0.05). The diagnostic potential of PPP2R1A in LUAD was modest, with an AUC of 0.593. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that overexpression of PPP2R1A was associated with poor progression-free survival (FP) and overall survival (OS) in LUAD patients, particularly in early-stage disease (P < 0.05). Subgroup analysis indicated a significant correlation between PPP2R1A expression and clinical features such as N stage and tumor stage, with higher expression in advanced-stage LUAD. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network identified key interaction partners of PPP2R1A, including PRPF31 and SCAF1, and functional enrichment analysis highlighted roles in protein dephosphorylation, cell cycle regulation, and metabolic pathways. Moreover, the genetic mutation frequency of PPP2R1A was low (2.3%), with missense mutations in the phosphatase domain. Immunoinfiltration analysis revealed significant correlations between PPP2R1A expression and macrophage infiltration, particularly with M2-like polarization, as well as the presence of regulatory T cells (Tregs), suggesting a potential immunomodulatory role in LUAD. Functional assays showed that PPP2R1A knockdown significantly inhibited LUAD cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis, supporting its role in tumor progression and suggesting that PPP2R1A is critical in LUAD pathogenesis and may serve as a diagnostic and therapeutic target.
Keywords: Lung Adenocarcinoma, PPP2R1A, Tumor Microenvironment, Immuneinfiltration, Kaplan-Meier plotter
Received: 24 Jun 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xiao, Hu, Li, Zhang, Xiao, Dong and Liao. 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:
Mingyou Dong, 01187@ymun.edu.cn
Lusheng Liao, 01188@ymun.edu.cn
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