Background
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are pivotal in tumor resistance to chemotherapy and gastric cancer's rapid proliferation and metastasis. We aimed to explore the CSCs-related genes in gastric cancer epithelial cells.
Conclusion
We identified a novel CSCs-related gene in gastric cancer epithelial cells, WDR72, which was highly expressed in patients with high stemness scores.
Methods
The mRNA expression profile and single-cell sequencing data of gastric cancer were downloaded from the public database.
Results
We identified WDR72 as a CSCs-related gene in gastric cancer epithelial cells. WDR72 was highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues, and high expression of WDR72 was associated with inferior prognosis of patients. WDR72 expression had a significant negative correlation with the infiltration of CD8 + T cells and activated memory CD4 + T cells. PD-L1 expression was significantly reduced in gastric cancer patients with high WDR72 expression. WDR72 was correlated with IC50 of multiple small-molecule drugs.