Effect of myeloid ecotropic viral integration site (MEIS) family genes on tumor microenvironment remodeling and its potential therapeutic effect

BACKGROUND: The myeloid ecotropic viral integration site (MEIS) family of genes is related to the occurrence, development, and outcome of many cancers. However, its role in the immune and tumor microenvironment (TME) is unclear. This study explored the relationship between the expression of MEIS genes and patient survival, immune subtypes, TME, tumor stem cell correlation, and drug sensitivity in cancer. METHODS: We used The Cancer Genome Atlas pan-cancer data to analyze the expression of the MEIS family genes. Kaplan-Meier analysis and univariate Cox proportional hazard regression model were used to detect the relationship between gene expression and overall survival. Analysis of variance was used to explore the relationship between the MEIS family and the immune components in the tumor, and the ESTIMATE algorithm was used to calculate the proportion and level of tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Spearman and Pearson’s correlation tests were carried out to detect the relationship between MEIS and the characteristics of tumor stem cells and drug sensitivity. RESULTS: The MEIS family of genes shows different expression profiles in different cancers, with substantial inter- and intra-cancer heterogeneity. Among them, MEIS3 was upregulated in most cancers, whereas MEIS2 was downregulated. The change in MEIS gene expression was usually related to overall survival, but whether a member of the MEIS family was a risk factor or a protective factor was cancer-dependent. Immune component analysis suggested that the role of MEIS genes in promoting or inhibiting cancer may be related to different degrees of immune silencing. Further, there were varying degrees of correlation between MEIS gene expression and cancer cell stemness characteristics. It was also found that MEIS genes, especially MEIS1 and MEIS2, may be related to chemotherapy resistance. CONCLUSIONS: We explored the expression, prognostic relationship, molecular characteristics, and effects on immunity and TME of the MEIS gene family in cancer. Our results suggest that MEIS members should be studied as independent entities in different types of cancer. The MEIS gene family may be a potential target for cancer therapy, but further experiments are needed to confirm this.