NEFM DNA methylation correlates with immune infiltration and survival in breast cancer

BACKGROUND: This study aims to determine whether NEFM (neurofilament medium) DNA methylation correlates with immune infiltration and prognosis in breast cancer (BRCA) and to explore NEFM-connected immune gene signature. METHODS: NEFM transcriptional expression was analyzed in BRCA and normal breast tissues using Oncomine and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) databases. The relationship between NEFM DNA methylation and NEFM transcriptional expression was investigated in TCGA. Potential influence of NEFM DNA methylation/expression on clinical outcome was evaluated using TCGA BRCA, The Human Protein Atlas and Kaplan–Meier plotter databases. Association of NEFM transcriptional expression/DNA methylation with cancer immune infiltration was investigated using TIMER and TISIDB databases. RESULTS: High expression of NEFM correlated with better overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in TCGA BRCA and Kaplan–Meier plotter, whereas NEFM DNA methylation with worse OS in TCGA BRCA. NEFM transcriptional expression negatively correlated with DNA methylation. NEFM DNA methylation significantly negatively correlated with infiltrating levels of B, CD8(+) T/CD4(+) T cells, macrophages, neutrophils and dendritic cells in TIMER and TISIDB. NEFM expression positively correlated with macrophage infiltration in TIMER and TISIDB. After adjusted with tumor purity, NEFM expression weekly negatively correlated with infiltration level of B cells, whereas positively correlated with CD8(+) T cell infiltration in TIMER gene modules. NEFM expression/DNA methylation correlated with diverse immune markers in TCGA and TISIDB. CONCLUSIONS: NEFM low-expression/DNA methylation correlates with poor prognosis. NEFM expression positively correlates with macrophage infiltration. NEFM DNA methylation strongly negatively correlates with immune infiltration in BRCA. Our study highlights novel potential functions of NEFM expression/DNA methylation in regulation of tumor immune microenvironment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13148-021-01096-4.