Potential prognostic biomarker of OSBPL10 in pan-cancer associated with immune infiltration.

Abstract

Oxysterol binding protein-related protein 10 (OSBPL10) is a crucial sterol transporter that plays a significant role in regulating metabolic homeostasis. Previous studies have indicated that OSBPL10 promotes the development of several tumors. However, an integrative bioinformatics and immune infiltration analysis of OSBPL10 across various cancers has yet to be conducted. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the expression patterns, prognostic value, genetic variations, protein modifications, immune infiltration characteristics, and biological functions of OSBPL10 in 33 human cancers using bioinformatics methods and publicly available databases, including TCGA, GEPIA2, GTEx, UCSC, UALCAN, HPA and TISCH2.0. The function of OSBPL10 and its associated mechanisms were confirmed in the pancreatic cancer cell lines Panc-1 and Mia PaCa-2. Our results revealed that OSBPL10 mRNA expression was significantly upregulated in 12 types of tumor tissues and downregulated in 3 cancers, which was notably associated with poor prognosis, pathological stage, and subtype in 10 tumors. Additionally, the level of promoter methylation exhibited a significant negative correlation with OSBPL10 mRNA expression. OSBPL10 expression was found to be dramatically associated with the levels of chemokines, chemokine receptors, immune checkpoints, and immune cell infiltration across various tumors by activating cancer pathways related to the extracellular matrix (ECM) and TSC/mTOR while downregulating tumor cell stemness. Furthermore, elevated OSBPL10 expression was negatively correlated with most drug sensitivities. In vitro experiments showed that OSBPL10 promoted the proliferation and migration of pancreatic cancer cells through the VEGF/AKT signaling pathway. In conclusion, our pan-cancer analysis suggests that OSBPL10 may serve as a critical biomarker for improving prognosis through OSBPL10-targeted therapies, immunotherapies, and chemotherapeutic combinations in cancer patients.