Discoidin domain receptor 1 is a potential target correlated with tumor invasion and immune infiltration in gastric cancer

Abstract

Discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) has been demonstrated to be able to promote tumor invasion and metastasis and being closely related to tumor immune infiltration. However, DDR1 has rarely been studied in gastric cancer. Here, we primarily evaluated DDR1 expression in gastric cancer and its cell lines using multiple databases. Subsequently, the cancer prognosis was investigated in relation to DDR1 expression. After analysis, we discovered that DDR1 was highly expressed and significantly connected with poor prognosis in gastric cancer. To comprehensively understand the molecular mechanism of DDR1, we explored genes and proteins interacting with DDR1 in gastric cancer using databases. Additionally, we found that the expression level of DDR1 was inversely correlated with immune infiltration and significantly relative to various immune cell markers. Overall, DDR1 was implicated in invasion, metastasis, and immune infiltration of gastric cancer. Inhibition of DDR1 may have the potential to alleviate the strong invasiveness and metastasis of advanced gastric cancer. Meanwhile, immune exclusion by DDR1 may also provide a new strategy for improving the efficacy of immune checkpoints inhibitors (ICIs), such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody.