Interferon-Induced Protein 44 Correlated With Immune Infiltration Serves as a Potential Prognostic Indicator in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

ABSTRACT

Interferon-induced protein 44 (IFI44) containing a guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP) binding domain was reported to play a significant role in the immune response to autoimmune disease. However, its roles involved in cancers remain unclear. Here, we detected the expression of IFI44 in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pan-cancer and generally explored the effect of IFI44 on immune infiltration in the tumor microenvironment (TME). The results displayed that IFI44 was mainly located in the cytoplasm and overexpressed in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) samples compared with normal tissues. Survival analysis exhibited that IFI44 was remarkably associated with the clinical outcomes, particularly in lymph node-positive and locally advanced HNSC patients. Biological analysis showed that IFI44 was correlated with such immune biological processes as antigen-presenting and nuclear factor (NF)-kappa B signaling pathways. Immune signature analysis demonstrated that the expression of IFI44 was positively correlated with the infiltration of CD4+ cells and macrophages as well as neutrophils in HNSC. Taken together, these data suggested that IFI44 was abnormally expressed in cancer tissues and indicated the potential impact of IFI44 on the tumor immune infiltration in HNSC.