MS4A15 is a novel prognostic biomarker and a potential target in lung adenocarcinoma

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common histological type of NSCLC and is characterized by high heterogeneity and high mortality rate. In the present study, we assessed the expressions and prognostic values of MS4A15 in virous tumors including LUAD via TCGA , GTEx and GEO databases. We found that MS4A15 expression was significantly down-regulated in tumor tissues from LUAD patients compared with the matched normal adjacent samples. A positive correlation between MS4A15 and 9 immune cells including was founded, including mast cells, dendritic cells, Macrophage cells, natural killer cells and etc. While, there is a negative correlation between MS4A15 and Th2 cell subset. Specifically, MS4A15 was most positively associated with mast cells. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between clinicopathological factors and the MS4A15 high-low dichotomy in LUAD. Low expression of MS4A15 showed a negative correlation with Pathologic stage (Stage III & Stage IV vs. Stage I & Stage II) (OR, 0.543; p = 0.005) and primary therapy outcome (PD vs. PR&CR) (OR, 0.443; p = 0.003). Furthermore, the potential of MS4A15 as a biomarker for distinguishing LUAD patients from healthy individuals was evaluated using ROC curve analysis. The area under the curve (AUC) was found to be 0.863, suggesting that MS4A15 holds promise as a biomarker. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed lower MS4A15 expression predicted poorer overall survival rate in patients with LUAD. Consistency was observed in GSE116959 dataset and GSE130779 dataset to show the lower expression in LUAD in versus to normal lung tissues. Overall, MS4A15 is a novel prognostic biomarker and may be a new target for the treatment of LUAD.