Migrasome-related prognostic signature TSPAN4 correlates with immune infiltrates and metabolic disturbances in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: We aim to comprehensively analyze and validate the prognostic efficacy of tetraspanin 4 (TSPAN4) and several other migrasome-related markers in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: The expression, diagnostic, and prognostic efficacy of five migrasome-related genes in HCC were analyzed using several databases. Five pairs of adjacent non-tumor tissues and HCC tissues were used to validate the expression. The prognostic efficacy of TSPAN4 was validated in a HCC cohort. TSPAN4 was knocked down in Huh-7 cells, EdU, and CCK-8, and wound healing assays were conducted to analyze its effects on cell proliferation and migration. In addition, transcriptomic sequencing was used to identify differentially expressed genes.

Results: Compared with those in normal tissues, four genes (TSPAN4, PIGK, NDST1, and CPQ) were elevated in liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC), but not TSPAN7. Of these, only elevated TSPAN4 predicted unfavorable prognosis of HCC patients. The expression and prognostic efficacy of TSPAN4 were further confirmed in a HCC cohort (97 patients); and patients in the TSPAN4^high group showed unfavorable overall survival (log-rank P = 0.0055). Functional analysis showed that TSPAN4 knockdown significantly suppressed cell migration, but not cell proliferation. Moreover, TSPAN4 knockdown induced disturbances of the metabolic pathways, mainly pentose and glucuronate interconversions.

Conclusions: TPSAN4 is a promising prognostic and therapeutic target for HCC treatment and may be involved in the metabolic pathways that affect disease progression.