LAPTM5 Plays a Key Role in the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Testicular Germ Cell Tumors

OBJECTIVE: Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) are a serious malignant tumor with low early diagnosis rates and high mortality. METHODS: To investigate novel biomarkers to predict the diagnosis and prognosis of this cancer, bioinformatics analysis was used as an accurate, efficient, and economical method. RESULTS: Our study detected 39 upregulated and 589 downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using the GEO and TCGA databases. To identify the function of DEGs, GO functional analysis, three pathway analysis (KEGG, REACTOME, and PANTHER), and protein-protein interaction network were performed using the KOBAS website, as well as the String database. After a series of analyses in GEPIA and TIMER, including differential expression, we found one candidate gene related to the prognosis and diagnosis of TGCT. LAPTM5 was also associated with CD8+ T cell and PDCD1 expression, which suggests that it may affect immune infiltration. CONCLUSIONS: LAPTM5 was identified as a hub gene, which could be used as a potential biomarker for TGCT diagnosis and prognosis.