Solute carrier family 16 member 1 as a potential prognostic factor for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and its influence on tumor immunity.

Background: Solute carrier family 16 member 1 () serves as a biomarker in numerous types of cancer. Tumor immune infiltration has drawn increasing attention in cancer progression and treatment. The objective of our study was to explore the association between and the tumor immune microenvironment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

Methods: Data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas. The xCell web tool was used to calculate the proportion of immune cells according to expression. To further explore the mechanism of , immunity-related genes were screened from differentially expressed genes through weighted gene coexpression network analysis, examined via Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses, and filtrated using univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression model combined correlation analysis (P<0.05). Next, CIBERSORT was used to analyze the correlation between immune cells and five important genes. expression and its clinical role in pancreatic cancer was clarified via immunohistochemical staining experiments. Finally, the effects of on the results of cancer immunity were evaluated by in vitro experiments.

Results: was overexpressed in PDAC tissues and could be an independent prognostic factor. was significantly negatively correlated with overall survival and suppressed the tumor immunity of PDAC. In clinic, expression was significantly positively correlated with tumor progression and poor prognosis. We also found that could suppress the antitumor ability of CD8 T cells.

Conclusions: is a biomarker for the prognosis of PDAC and can influence the immune environment of PDAC. These findings provide new insights into the treatment of PDAC.