Overexpression of LIMA1 Indicates Poor Prognosis and Promotes Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: LIMA1 encodes LIM domain and actin binding 1, a cytoskeleton-associated protein whose loss has been linked to migration and invasion behavior of cancer cells. However, the roles of LIMA1 underlying the malignant behavior of tumors in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) are not fully understood. Methods: We conducted a multi-omics study on the role of LIMA1 in HNSC based on The Cancer Genome Atlas data. Subsequent in vitro experiments were performed to validate the results of bioinformatic analysis. We first identified the correlation between LIMA1 and tumor cell functional states according to single-cell sequencing data in HNSC. The potential downstream effects of LIMA1 were explored for gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways through functional enrichment analysis of the gene sets that correlated with LIMA1 in HNSC. The prognostic role of LIMA1 was assessed using the log rank test to compare difference in survival between LIMA1(High) and LIMA1(Low) patients. Univariate Cox regression and multivariate Cox regression were further carried out to identify the prognostic value of LIMA1 in HNSC. Results: LIMA1 was identified as a prognostic biomarker and is associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) progress in HNSC. In vitro silencing of LIMA1 suppressed EMT and related pathways in HNSC. Conclusions: LIMA1 promotes EMT and further leads to tumor invasion and metastasis. Increased expression of LIMA1 indicates poor survival, identifying it as a prognostic biomarker in HNSC.