Pan-cancer analysis reveals NUP37 as a prognostic biomarker correlated with the immunosuppressive microenvironment in glioma

Nucleoporin 37 kDa (NUP37), a member of the nucleoporin family, has been reported to regulate the proliferation and apoptosis of several tumor types. However, its role in the tumor immune microenvironment is unclear. Here, we evaluated the expression, methylation, copy number alteration, and prognostic significance of NUP37 using RNA-seq and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We observed higher expression of NUP37 in 28 of 29 tumor types, and high NUP37 expression predicted worse survival status of patients in 15 tumors. Using data from the cBioportal database, we described the gene variation of NUP37 in glioma and pancancer. We further assessed the role of NUP37 in the tumor immune microenvironment using immune infiltration data. NUP37 expression was positively associated with the infiltration levels of immunosuppressive cells, such as nTregs, iTregs, and tumor-associated macrophages, and negatively correlated with immune killer cells, such as CD8+ T and NK cells across cancers. Furthermore, NUP37 expression was associated with immune checkpoints and immune regulation-related genes. The half-maximal inhibitory concentrations of anti-cancer drugs were obtained from the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in the Cancer database. The correlation between half-maximal inhibitory concentration and NUP37 expression was evaluated. The patients with the evaluated expression of NUP37 were resistant to several anti-cancer drugs. These results suggest that NUP37 is a potential oncogene and prognostic biomarker in glioma and pan-cancer. Tumor tissues with high NUP37 expression exist in a relatively immunosuppressive microenvironment and are resistant to several anti-cancer drugs.