Diagnostic and prognostic value of the gasdermins in gastric cancer

BackgroundPyroptosis has been drawn attention owing to its contributory role in various cancers. Recently, the participator of pyroptosis, gasdermins (GSDMs) have been reported associated with of multiple types of cancers. However, the role of GSDMs expression in diagnosis and prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) has not been well elucidated. Moreover, the mechanisms underlying the carcinogenesis of GC are still obscure. MethodsHerein we analyzed the transcriptional, prognostic information and the role of GSDMs in patients with GC from TIMER, UALCAN, Human Protein Atlas (HPA), GEPIA and Kaplan-Meier plotter databases. The cBioPortal online tool was used to analyze the GSDMs alterations, correlations, and networks. Furthermore, String, Cytoscape and TIMER were conducted to explore the functional enrichment and immune modulation. The statistical analysis was carried out in the R environment, and P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsGSDMB, GSDMC, GSDMD, GSDME were with higher expression in GC than normal tissue in TIMER database. Moreover, survival analyses via two databases both demonstrated that high expression of GSDME was related to shorter overall survival (OS) in patients with GC. Additionally, functional enrichment revealed that GSDMs might be involved in endopeptidase activity, peptidase regulator activity, cysteine-type peptidase activity. Besides, GSDMs were correlated with infiltration levels of immune cells in GC, and GSDME was correlated with the infiltrating level of CD4+ T, CD8+ T, neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells. ConclusionsThe study systematically indicated the potential diagnostic and prognostic value of GSDMs in GC. Our results showed that GSDME might play a considerably oncogenic role in GC diagnosis and prognosis. However, our bioinformatics analyses should be further validated in more prospective studies.