Comprehensive Analysis of the Prognosis and Correlations with Immune Infiltration of CXC Chemokine Family Members in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

Background: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The failure rate of treatment for its subsets is still very high. CXC chemokine, secreted by a variety of cells, is a vital component in the immune process. It also participated in the growth, development, and metastasis of tumors. This study aimed to explore the prognosis of CXC chemokines in DLBCL and the relationship with immune infiltration through bioinformatics analysis. Methods: We systematically analyzed the expression level and prognostic value of CXC chemokines in DLBCL patients, and the correlation between CXC chemokines and tumor immune infiltration through databases, such as Oncomine, GEO, GEPIA, GeneMANIA, DAVID, HPA, GenomicScape, and TIMER2.0. Results: With the comprehensive analysis of different databases, we found that CXC chemokines (CXCL1/2/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14) had significantly higher transcription levels in DLBCL patients vs. the control groups. The up-regulation mRNA levels of CXCL1/2/6/7/10/12 were associated with poor prognoses in DLBC patients. Further enrichment analysis of CXC chemokines and their receptors revealed that they were related to the infiltration and metastasis of immune cells. Besides, we found that the expression of CXCL9/10/11 were significantly correlated with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) (B cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, macrophages, Treg cells, and NK cells) and immune checkpoints in DLBCL. Conclusion: Our study may provide novel understandings for CXC chemokines as immunotherapeutic targets and prognostic biomarkers in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma through systematic analysis.