ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
This article is part of the Research TopicCommunity Series in Novel Biomarkers in Tumor Immunity and Immunotherapy: Volume IIIView all 5 articles
PRKAR1B as an oncogenic biomarker for diagnostic and prognostic stratification of tumor immunity, proliferation, and migration in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jiangxi Cancer Hospital, Nanchang, China
- 2Longgang ENT Hospital, Institute of ENT and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of ENT, Shenzhen, China
- 3Quanzhou Orthopedic Traumatological Hospital of Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Quanzhou, China
- 4Medical College of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
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Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide. PRKAR1B, a regulatory component of protein kinase A (PKA), has been widely investigated for its potential involvement in tumorigenesis across different diseases. However, its specific role in HNSC remains elusive. In this study, significant differences in PRKAR1B expression were observed across various cancer types. PRKAR1B was highly expressed in HNSC and was strongly associated with poor prognosis in HNSC patients. Moreover, it was identified as an independent prognostic factor significantly associated with clinical parameters. Correlation analysis revealed that PRKAR1B expression was associated with genes such as C7orf50, EIF3B, TBRG4, DDX56, and BRAT1. Additionally, it was associated with TMB and was correlated with the infiltration of immune cells such as M1 macrophages, activated mast cells, and eosinophils. Notably, PRKAR1B was identified as a predictive marker for the efficacy of CTLA-4 inhibitors, with high PRKAR1B expression potentially conferring superior therapeutic responses. Drug sensitivity analysis further suggested that Lapatinib and Erlotinib may be beneficial in HNSC patients with high PRKAR1B expression. Meanwhile, in vitro experiments showed that PRKAR1B knockdown inhibited HNSC cell proliferation and migration. Lastly, PRKAR1B protein expression was upregulated in clinical HNSC samples. Overall, this study thoroughly examined PRKAR1B expression and its prognostic significance in HNSC, investigated related molecular pathways and immune cell interactions, and validated its role via in vitro experiments.
Keywords: hNSC, Migration, PRKAR1B, proliferation, tumor immunity
Received: 18 Dec 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhao, Li, Xiu, Liu, Huang, Jiang, Zhang and Peng. 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: Peng Zhang
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