The expression, prognostic value and potential mechanism of PLCB2 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Objective: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a malignant tumor with dismay outcome. Probing the potential mechanisms of tumorigenesis and progression, identifying valid diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of ccRCC remain urgent. This study aimed to screen out novel biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets of ccRCC. Methods: In this study, based on our own database and public databases such as TCGA, GEO, GTEx, CPTAC and CCLE, we performed a systematic study of the expression and prognostic value of PLCB2. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between ccRCC and normal tissues were explored for further functional enrichment analysis includes Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). Afterward, immune cell infiltrates analysis was established to evaluate the correlation between PLCB2 expression and immune cell infiltration level. Results: PLCB2 weas significantly higher in tumors than in normal tissues not only at transcriptional but translational levels in various cancers, including ccRCC. Logistic regression analysis revealed that higher expression level of PLCB2 was significantly correlated with worse clinicopathological characteristics. Furthermore, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that ccRCC cases with high PLCB2 expression had poor OS. Cox regression demonstrated that the transcriptional level of PLCB2 was confirmed to be an independent prognostic factor for OS in ccRCC patients. In functional enrichment analysis, except for classical oncogenic signaling pathways, most DEGs were enriched in immune response related pathways, indicating that PLCB2 may influence the occurrence and progression of ccRCC by regulating immune infiltration. Afterward, immune cell infiltrates analysis comfirmed that the expression level of PLCB2 has a significantly relationship with the infiltration levels of CD8+ T cells, which indicated that PLCB2 might be a candidate target for cancer immunotherapy. Conclusions: Our study provides valuable insights into the role of PLCB2 as a new diagnostic and prognostic biomarker and novel therapeutic target for ccRCC.