ALDOB represents a potential prognostic biomarker for patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that aldolase B (ALDOB) might play controversial roles in multiple types of cancer, which could act as a cancer-promoting factor or a cancer-inhibiting factor depending on the subtype of the cancer. However, the role of ALDOB in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients has not been clearly elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to comprehensively explore the expression level, prognostic value, functional enrichment, immune infiltration, and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification of ALDOB in ccRCC patients. METHODS: A total of 1,070 ccRCC tissues and 409 normal tissues from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and the ArrayExpress database were enrolled to evaluate the expression level and prognostic value of ALDOB in ccRCC. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves and the Log-Rank test were performed to assess the prognostic value. The univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to identify the independent prognostic predictors in ccRCC patients. In addition, R version 4.2.0 with its suitable packages were used to perform the functional enrichment analysis, immune infiltration analysis, and m6A methylation analysis. Statistical significance was set at the P value <0.05. RESULTS: The expression level of ALDOB was significantly down-regulated in ccRCC compared to normal tissue, and the ALDOB expression level was noticeably correlated with T stage, M stage, and histologic grade of patients with ccRCC. The survival analysis revealed that ALODB was the independent predictor of overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and progression-free survival (PFS) of ccRCC patients. In addition, the functional enrichment analysis showed that ALDOB and its related genes were mainly involved in the metabolism and metabolic pathways of multiple substances, including glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and fatty acid degradation. Finally, the immune infiltration analysis and the m6A methylation analysis suggested that ALDOB was closely correlated with the infiltration abundance of immune cells and stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment and several types of m6A regulators in ccRCC. CONCLUSIONS: As a potential prognostic biomarker for patients with ccRCC, downregulation of ALDOB was closely associated with the clinicopathological features, poor prognosis, immune infiltration, and m6A modification in ccRCC patients.