Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2T predicts the tumour microenvironment immune characteristics and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: Bioinformatics-based approach

Abstract Background and aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a commonly occurring type of malignancy lacking effective prognostic biomarkers. This study aimed to identify the role of ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2T (UBE2T) in HCC and investigate its potential clinical and prognostic significance. Materials and Methods: A total of 424 case series and files from TCGA datasets were used in the analysis. UBE2T expression was analysed via the Tumour Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) site. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were selected to run genome ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) to examine UBE2T-associated signalling pathways. Analysis of tumour mutational burden (TMB), immune cell differentiation, immune cell correlation, immune checkpoints, drug sensitivity, and immunotherapy was also performed. Immunohistochemistry was utilized to validate the dysregulation of UBE2T in HCC. Results: UBE2T expression levels were significantly higher in the tumour group than in the normal group, according to the differential analysis of the TCGA-LIHC data ( P <0.001). Based on univariate and multivariate Cox analyses, UBE2T could be employed as an independent prognostic factor to predict the progression of HCC. The results of the immune analysis indicated that immune cells were more active in the UBE2T high expression group and identified the associated immune checkpoint.Drug sensitivity analysis revealed that the UBE2T high expression group was sensitive to cell cycle drugs. Conclusion: UBE2T has significant prognostic value in HCC and can be used as a potential tumour biomarker of tumour microenvironment immune characteristics.