Pan-cancer analysis of super enhancer-induced PRR7-AS1 as a potential prognostic and immunological biomarker

Introduction: Systematic pan-cancer analysis of the roles and regulatory mechanisms for PRR7-AS1 is currently not available. Methods: In the present study, a comprehensive bioinformatic approach was used to mine the underlying oncogenic effects of PRR7-AS1, including expression status, prognostic value and immune characteristics. Results: We discovered that PRR7-AS1 expression was remarkably upregulated in most cancer types and exhibited a negative correlation with the prognosis. Furthermore, PRR7-AS1 expression was inversely connected with the majority of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, immune scores and immune checkpoint gene expression in pancancer. There was also a significant correlation between PRR7-AS1 expression status and tumor mutational burden, microsatellite instability, and neoantigens in certain tumors. PRR7-AS1 had the best predictive power for immune checkpoint blockade efficacy compared to other well-recognized biomarkers. PRR7-AS1 overexpression could affect cytotoxic T cells-mediated antitumor responses. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that PRR7-AS1 might be involved in the metabolic pathways. Super enhancer activity might have participated in the regulation of PRR7-AS1 expression. And we constructed the competitive endogenous RNA networks for PRR7-AS1. Discussion: In general, PRR7-AS1 had the potential to be a diagnostic, prognostic and immune biomarker for pan cancer. PRR7-AS1 was correlated with an immunosuppressive microenvironment and was a new potential target for immunotherapy. Epigenetic factors were the driving forces for PRR7-AS1 overexpression in tumors.