Transcriptional analysis of the expression, prognostic value and immune infiltration activities of the COMMD protein family in hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND: The copper metabolism MURR1 domain (COMMD) protein family involved in tumor development and progression in several types of human cancer, but little is known about the function of COMMD proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: The ONCOMINE and the UALCAN databases were used to evaluate the expression of COMMD1–10 in HCC and the association of this family with individual cancer stage and tumor grade. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) Plotter and Cox analysis hint the prognostic value of COMMDs. A network comprising 50 most similar genes and COMMD1–10 was constructed with the STRING database. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed using LinkedOmics database. The correlations between COMMD expression and the presence of immune infiltrating cells were also analyzed by the tumor immune estimation resource (TIMER) database. GSE14520 dataset and 80 HCC patients were used to validated the expression and survival value of COMMD3. Human HCC cell lines were also used for validating the function of COMMD3. RESULTS: The expression of all COMMD family members showed higher expression in HCC tissues than that in normal tissues, and is associated with clinical cancer stage and pathological tumor grade. In HCC patients, the transcriptional levels of COMMD1/4 are positively correlated with overall survival (OS), while those of COMMD2/3/7/8/9 are negatively correlated with OS. Multivariate analysis indicated that a high level of COMMD3 mRNA is an independent prognostic factor for shorter OS in HCC patients. However, the subset of patients with grade 3 HCC, K-M survival curves revealed that high COMMD3/5/7/8/9 expression and low COMMD4/10 expression were associated with shorter OS. In addition, the expression of COMMD2/3/10 was associated with tumor-induced immune response activation and immune infiltration in HCC. The expression of COMMD3 from GSE14520 dataset and 80 patients are both higher in tumor than that in normal tissue, and a higher level of COMMD3 mRNA is associated with shorter OS. Knockdown of COMMD3 inhibits human HCC cell lines proliferation in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that COMMD3 is an independent prognostic biomarker for the survival of HCC patients. COMMD3 supports the proliferation of HCC cells and contributes to the poor OS in HCC patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08699-3.