High expression of COPB2 predicts adverse outcomes: A potential therapeutic target for glioma

Abstract

Aims: To evaluate the clinical significance of coatomer protein complex subunit beta 2 (COPB2) in patients with glioma using a bioinformatics analysis. Methods: Oncomine, GEO, and The Cancer Genome Atlas databases were used to examine the COPB2 transcript levels in glioma tissues. Gene expression profiles with clinical information from low-grade glioma and glioblastoma (GBM) projects were analyzed for associations between COPB2 expression and clinicopathologic characteristics. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses were used for survival analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was conducted to screen the pathways involved in COPB2 expression. Gene set variation analysis (GSVA) and correlograms were performed to verify the correlations between COPB2 and inflammatory responses. Canonical correlation analyses examined whether COPB2-high patients have more infiltrating inflammatory and immune cells. Results: COPB2 was highly expressed in gliomas and high COPB2 expression correlated with shorter overall survival time and several poor clinical prognostic variables. GSEA indicated that some immune-related pathways and other signaling pathways in cancer were associated with the COPB2-high phenotype. The GSVA and canonical correlation analysis demonstrated that COPB2 expression was closely linked to inflammatory and immune responses, and higher immune cell infiltration. Conclusions: COPB2 may be a potential prognostic biomarker and an immunotherapeutic target for glioma.