Expression of BAP1 and PCLO and their association with immune infiltration in hepatocellular carcinoma

Manrique Olivera A.F.; Cedrón Apolo K.; Guerra Dueñas A. · Horizonte Medico (2026) · DOI: 10.24265/horizmed.2026.v26n1.07

Resumen

Objective: To describe the correlation of BAP1 and PCLO mRNA expression with immune infiltration, immune signatures, and immune response–associated genes in hepatocellular carcinoma samples. Materials and methods: An analytical observational study was conducted based on transcriptomic data from 363 tumor samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (TCGA-LIHC) cohort. Spearman’s correlation was assessed between BAP1 and PCLO mRNA expression and three indicators of the tumor immune microenvironment: (1) the relative infiltration of 22 immune cell populations (estimated using the CIBERSORT deconvolution algorithm); (2) gene set variation analysis (GSVA) scores for nine immune signatures; and (3) the expression of 42 immune response–associated genes. P values were adjusted for multiple testing using the Benjamini–Hochberg (BH) method. Associations with a q value < 0.05 after correction were considered statistically significant. Results: BAP1 expression correlated positively with resting mast cells and negatively with resting memory CD4+ T cells and genes associated with an active immune response. In contrast, PCLO expression correlated positively with CD8+ T cells and regulatory T cells and negatively with naive CD4+ T cells and resting mast cells. Moreover, PCLO expression was positively correlated with genes associated with an active immune response, notably immune checkpoint inhibitors such as PDCD1, CD274, PDCD1LG2, CTLA4, HAVCR2, LAG3, and TIGIT. Conclusions: These findings suggest that BAP1 expression may be associated with an immunologically “cold” tumor microenvironment and reduced adaptive immune activation, whereas PCLO expression may be associated with an active immune infiltrate prone to CD8+ T-cell exhaustion. Given their associations with immune response–related genes, these features may have implications for immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma. However, experimental studies are required to confirm these hypotheses.

Instituciones: Universidad de Piura