NCAPH as a potential prognostic signaling biomarker regulating low-grade glioma cell proliferation, migration, invasion, immune microenvironment, and drug sensitivity

NCAPH is mainly involved in the transformation of nuclear chromatin in the intercellular phase into a highly heliform nuclear chromosome, encoded by a gene on chromosome 2q11.2. Studies have found that NCAPH, as an oncogene, plays important roles in the occurrence and development of several cancers, significantly affecting the survival and prognosis of patients. However, the role of NCAPH in low-grade glioma (LGG) has been largely unexplored. Here, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of NCAPH expression, abundance of cell subsets in single-cell cohorts, prognosis, co-localization, epigenetic alterations, functional enrichment, tumor immune-related features, immunotherapy response, drug sensitivity, and molecular docking in LGG. Our findings suggest that NCAPH is significantly overexpressed in LGG and is strongly relevant to poor prognosis, and that NCAPH plays important roles in reshaping the tumor microenvironment, which may promote immune tolerance of LGG and thus become a potential immunotherapeutic target. The sensitivity of LGG patients with high NCAPH expression to chemotherapy agents such as temozolomide also suggests the potential therapeutic effect of chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy. Furthermore, NCAPH was positively correlated with cell cycle, proliferation, DNA damage and repair, EMT, invasion, and apoptosis, while negatively associated with inflammation, quiescence and angiogenesis. Together, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of NCAPH in LGG and suggests that NCAPH may be a potential prognostic biomarker for LGG patients, with potential for drug development and immunotherapy.