The CSRNP Gene Family Serves as a Prognostic Biomarker in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

The cysteine-serine-rich nuclear protein (CSRNP) family has prognostic value for various cancers. However, the association between this proteins and prognosis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the prognostic value of theCSRNPfamily for patients with ccRCC. Therefore, the gene expression profiling interactive analysis database was used to analyze the mRNA expression ofCSRNPfamily members (CSRNPs) in relation with survival. Combined and independent prognostic values of CSRNPs were evaluated using SurvExpress and multivariate Cox regression analyses, respectively. Potential signaling pathways impacted byCSRNPswere evaluated using Metascape. Associations between theCSRNPfamily and immunocyte infiltration were determined from single-sample gene set enrichment analysis. Both cBioPortal and MethSurv were used to explore whether genomic and epidemic alterations might influence prognosis. We found that when bothCSRNP1andCSRNP3had a low expression, patients with ccRCC had a worse overall survival (OS). Therefore, a prognostic signature was constructed as follows: risk score = −0.224 × expmRNA ofCSRNP1+ 0.820 × expmRNA ofCSRNP2− 1.428 × expmRNA ofCSRNP3. We found that OS was worse in patients from the high- than from the low-risk groups (AUC = 0.69). Moreover, this signature was an independent predictor after adjusting for clinical features. Functional enrichment analysis positively associated CSRNPs with the acute inflammatory response and humoral immune response pathways. This was validated by correlating eachCSRNPwith 28 types of immunocytes in tumor and normal tissues. A higher expression ofCSRNP1andCSRNP3was associated with a better prognosis in both the high- and low-mutant burden groups. Cg19538674, cg07772537, and cg07811002 ofCSRNP1,CSRNP2, andCSRNP3, respectively, were the predominant DNA methylation sites affecting OS. TheCSRNPgene family signature may serve as a prognostic biomarker for predicting OS in patients with ccRCC. The association betweenCSRNPsand immune infiltration might offer future clinical treatment options.