The role of NLRP3 in the prognosis and immune infiltrates of skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM)

BACKGROUND: Skin cutaneous melanoma is one of the most aggressive types of cancers worldwide. Therefore, the identification of skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) biomarkers is of great importance. NLRP3 inflammasome complex nodelike receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) is one of the most characteristic inflammasomes belonging to the NLR protein family. This is the first time to use TCGA data to study NLRP3 expression in SKCM patients and its prognostic value, potential biological function, and impact on the immune system. METHODS: The expression of NLRP3 in SKCM was analyzed by Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). We assessed the impact of NLRP3 on SKCM patient survival through the survival module and then downloaded the SKCM data set from TCGA. Logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation between clinical data and NLRP3 expression. Univariate survival rate and multivariate Cox analysis were used to compare several clinical features and survival rates. We also used CIBERSORT to investigate the association between NLRP3 and cancer immune infiltration. We used TIMER to investigate NLRP3 expression and collection of immune infiltration levels in SKCM, as well as cumulative survival in SKCM. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed using the TCGA dataset. Besides, data from The Human Protein Atlas (HPA) was used to validate the results. RESULTS: Univariate Logistic regression analysis showed that increased NLRP3 expression was significantly correlated with age, stage, and tumor status. Specifically, NLRP3 expression level had significant positive correlations with infiltrating levels of B cell, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, Macrophages, Neutrophils, and DCs in SKCM. GSEA revealed that NLRP3 was closely correlated with pathways in cancer. HPA showed that in tumor tissues, NLRP3 had higher levels of expression compared to normal tissues. CONCLUSIONS: The discovery of NLRP3 as a new biomarker of SKCM helps to elucidate how changes in the immune environment promote the occurrence of cutaneous melanoma. Further analysis suggested that NLRP3 might be a predictor of SKCM prognosis.