Is ITGAL a gastric-cancer immune biomarker?

Q: Was ITGAL higher in GC?

Yes—408 tumors vs 211 normals on GEPIA, and in 10 paired tissues.

Q: OS hazard ratios?

HR 1.25 and 1.47 on two ITGAL probes.

ITGAL mRNA is higher in 408 GC vs 211 normal samples (AUC 0.798), tracks CD8/macrophage infiltrates and PD1, and worse OS on KM plotter (HR 1.25 and 1.47) across 1,065 tumors.

Source

ITGAL as a Prognostic Biomarker Correlated With Immune Infiltrates in Gastric Cancer

Zhang J, Wang H, Yuan C, et al. · Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022

doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2022.808212 Read the full paper ↗33 citationscc by

Study at a glance

Design: Computational / modelling — TCGA/GEPIA/TIMER/UALCAN/KM-plotter/TISIDB of ITGAL in gastric cancer plus IHC, qRT-PCR, and Western blot on 10 paired tumors
N: N=1065 · KM plotter 1,065 GC samples (mean follow-up 33 months); GEPIA 408 tumors vs 211 normals; 10 paired tissues for qPCR/WB; TCGA matched n=27
Population: Stomach adenocarcinoma bulk transcriptomes (TCGA/GTEx) and 10 paired gastric-cancer surgical tissues
Outcome: ITGAL expression vs stage/nodes, ROC AUC, overall survival HRs, and immune-infiltrate correlations including PD1

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

What they did

Mined TIMER, GEPIA, UALCAN, KM plotter (1,065 GC cases), and TISIDB for ITGAL vs clinicopathology and 28 TIL types, then checked 10 paired tumors by qRT-PCR/Western blot and IHC including PD1.

What they found

ITGAL was higher in GC (GEPIA p<0.05; UALCAN p=0.0015), rose with stage/nodes, discriminated GC with AUC 0.798, correlated with CD8 T cells (rho=0.732) and lower purity, and worse OS (HR 1.25 and 1.47 on two probes).

The limits

What it doesn't show

Bulk correlation is not proof that ITGAL causes immune exhaustion or that targeting it would help patients; KM plotter HRs vary by stage, and the wet-lab N is only 10 pairs.

Key terms

ITGAL: Integrin alpha L (CD11a partner); leukocyte adhesion molecule studied as a GC biomarker.
STAD: Stomach adenocarcinoma TCGA cohort.
KM plotter: Public survival tool; here 1,065 GC samples, mean follow-up 33 months.
TIMER: Tumor Immune Estimation Resource for inferred TIL fractions.
PD1: T-cell exhaustion checkpoint; ITGAL mRNA tracked PD1 in tumors.
AUC: ROC area; 0.798 for ITGAL distinguishing GC.

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ITGAL protein family is:

Common questions

Was ITGAL higher in GC?

Yes—408 tumors vs 211 normals on GEPIA, and in 10 paired tissues.

What was the ROC AUC?

0.798 (0.762–0.833).

KM plotter N?

1,065 gastric-cancer samples.

OS hazard ratios?

HR 1.25 and 1.47 on two ITGAL probes.