Abstract
Anillin (ANLN) is a unique scaffolding, actin-binding protein, which is essential for the integrity and ingression of the cleavage furrow. It is mainly involved in the cytokinesis process, while its role in various tumors has not been fully addressed and remains largely elusive. To provide a thorough perspective of ANLN's roles among diverse malignancies, we conducted a comprehensive, pan-cancer analysis about ANLN, including but not limited to gene expression levels, prognostic value, biological functions, interacting proteins, immune-related analysis, and predictive value. As a result, when compared to normal tissues, ANLN expression is elevated in most cancers, and its expression also differs in different immune subtypes and molecular subtypes in diverse cancers. In addition, in 17 types of cancer, ANLN expression is increased in early tumor stages, and higher ANLN expression predicts worse survival outcomes in more than ten cancers. Furthermore, ANLN shows close correlations with the infiltration levels of most immune cells, and enrichment analysis using ANLN co-expressed genes reveals that ANLN plays essential roles in cell cycle, mitosis, cellular senescence, and p53 signaling pathways. In the final, ANLN exhibits high accuracy in predicting many cancers, and subsequent multivariate analysis suggests ANLN could be an independent prognostic factor in specific cancer types. Taken together, ANLN is proved to be a novel and promising biomarker for its excellent predictive utility, promising prognostic value, and potential immunological roles in pan-cancer. Targeting ANLN might be an attractive approach to tumor treatment.