What is the impact of ITGβ8 on NSCLC: A systematic study

Abstract Background : Integrin is a vital cell membrane surface receptor that conducts bidirectional signal transduction across the cell membrane and regulates cell adhesion and activation. Integrin β8 (ITGβ8) belongs to the β subunit family of integrin. It is a tumour promoter and its levels are upregulated in various cancers, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, a comprehensive analysis of its prognostic value in NSCLC has not been performed. Here, bioinformatics analysis and basic experiments were used to investigated the expression of ITGβ8 in NSCLC and its potential association with immunotherapy. Methods : In this study, we used bioinformatics technology to analyze not only the expression of ITGβ8 in NSCLC tissues in the database, but also the correlation between ITGβ8 expression and immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint expression, TMB expression, signaling pathways and patient survival. The expression of ITGβ 8 in NSCLC cells was verified by WB and RT-qPCR. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to analyze the relationship between ITGβ8 expression levels and prognosis of NSCLC patients. Log-rank test and cox proportional-hazards model were used to identify risk factors associated with prognosis. Results :The TCGA database and HPA database as well as our lung cancer tissue specimens showed high expression of ITGβ8 in NSCLC tumor tissues. ITGβ8 was highly expressed in lung cancer cell lines compared to normal lung epithelial cell lines. Bioinformatics technology analysis demonstrated that ITGβ8 expression correlated with immune subtypes, immune infiltrating cells, immune checkpoint genes, and signaling pathways. High expression of ITGβ8 in NSCLC has a shorter survival. Kaplan-Meier survival curve and cox regression analysis demonstrated that increased ITGβ8 expression was a marker of poor prognosis in NSCLC, and its expression level was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. Conclusions : ITGβ8 is highly expressed in NSCLC, and it is involved in regulating the immune process of NSCLC. It may be an important immune predictive biomarker that provides a new idea for the treatment of NSCLC.