Low expression of PRDM5 predicts poor prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: The role of the PRDM5 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been revealed. This study investigated the relationship between PRDM5 expression and survival outcome in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and explored the mechanism in tumor development. METHODS: In present study, expression of PRDM5 mRNA in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients was conducted using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The expression of PRDM5 was assessed by immunohistochemical staining. Kaplan-Meier curve and Cox regression analysis was performed to analyze the survival outcome and independent predictive factors. qRT-PCR and Methylation-specific PCR were performed to identify the mRNA level of PRDM5 and Methylation rate. Cibersort algorithm to analyze the relationship between PRDM5 expression and immune cell invasion. Western-blot was performed to confirm the expression of esophageal tumor tissues and adjacent tissues. RESULTS: The TCGA database and GEO database show that PRDM5 mRNA level in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma adjacent tissues was higher than that of cancer tissues, and ESCC patients with high expression of PRDM5 mRNA had better overall survival. Tissue microarray showed that the protein level of PRDM5 in the adjacent tissues of patients with ESCC was higher than that in cancer tissues, and the expression level of PRDM5 was significantly correlated with the grade of clinicopathological characteristics (P < 0.001). Patients with high expression of PRDM5 displayed a better OS and DFS. Cox regression analysis showed that PRDM5 was an independent risk factor and prognostic factor for ESCC patients (HR: 2.626, 95%CI: 1.824–3.781; P < 0.001). The protein level of PRDM5 matched with the transcriptional level, whereas the DNA methylation affected the transcriptional level. Cibersort showed that T cells CD4 memory resting, mast cells resting, eosinophils, M2 macrophages and mast cells activated were significantly positively correlated with PRDM5 expression (P < 0.05), while regulatory T cells, monocytes and dendritic cells negatively correlated with PRDM5 expression (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: PRDM5 can be used as a biomarker to predict the survival of ESCC patients. Furthermore, PRDM5 expression in ESCC cells may affect WNT/β-catenin signaling pathways, thus further affect the ESCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion capacity. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-09787-8.