The oncogenic role of tubulin alpha-1c chain in human tumours

Abstract

Tubulin alpha-1c chain (TUBA1C), a subtype of α-tubulin, has been shown to be involved in cell proliferation and cell cycle progression in several cancers and to influence cancer development and prognosis. However, a pancancer analysis of TUBA1C to reveal its immunological and prognostic roles has not been performed. In this study, we first downloaded raw data on TUBA1C expression in cancers from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and multiple other databases and analysed these data with R software to investigate the prognostic and immunological value of TUBA1C in cancers. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed in gliomas to further validate our findings. Overall, TUBA1C was overexpressed in most cancers, and overexpression of TUBA1C was linked to poor prognosis and higher tumour grade in patients. In addition, TUBA1C expression was associated with tumour mutation burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), the tumour microenvironment (TME) and the infiltration of immune cells. TUBA1C was also coexpressed with most immune-related genes and influenced immune-related pathways. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that TUBA1C expression was highest in glioblastoma (GBM) tissues, second highest in low-grade glioma (LGG) tissues and lowest in normal tissues. Our study indicated that TUBA1C might be a biomarker for predicting the immune status and prognosis of cancers, offering new ideas for cancer treatment.