Abstract
BACKGROUND: Phosphatidylinositol binding clathrin assembly protein interacting mitotic regulator (PIMREG) plays a significant role in metaphase-to-anaphase transition in cell cycle. Its aberrant expression has been reported to be in correlation with the development of several tumors. However, its role in melanoma remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic roles of PIMREG in skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM). METHODS: The expression levels of PIMREG were analyzed in SKCM using datasets downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The diagnostic accuracy was assessed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. PIMREG was correlated to the functional states of SKCM cells using CancerSEA. Additionally, a protein-protein interaction network was constructed using STRING (https://cn.string-db.org), and hub genes were identified using Cytoscape. Enrichment analysis through Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was utilized to explore the potential functions of PIMREG. The single-sample GSEA (ssGSEA) method was employed to investigate the correlation between PIMREG expression and the level of immune infiltration in SKCM. Drug sensitivity and resistance were analyzed using GSCALite and Cellminer. RESULTS: The expression of PIMREG was significantly higher in SKCM tissues. Its overexpression correlated with poor survival outcome in melanoma patients. ROC analysis also revealed that PIMREG had high diagnostic potential, with area under the ROC curve (AUC) value of 0.874. Multivariate regression also identified PIMREG could serve as an independent diagnostic indicator for SKCM. Using the web tool of CancerSEA, we demonstrated that PIMREG is involved in cell cycle, DNA repair, DNA damage, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invasion, and proliferation. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that PIMREG might be correlated with some biological processes (BPs) and important pathways related to cancer, including Wnt signaling and epidermis development. CONCLUSIONS: PIMREG is a promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarker and may be regarded as a possible therapeutic target for SKCM.