A pan-cancer analysis of the oncogenic role of polypyrimidine tract binding protein 1 (PTBP1) in human tumors

Background: Polypyrimidine tract-binding protein 1 (PTBP1) is an RNA-binding protein that regulates several posttranscriptional events and is closely related to the development of multiple tumors. However, little is known about PTBP1. Thus, we carried out a systematic pan-cancer analysis to explore the relationship between PTBP1 and cancer. Methods: We used The Cancer Genome Atlas, Gene Expression Omnibus, and Human Protein Atlas datasets, as well as several bioinformatics tools, to explore the role of PTBP1 in 33 tumor types. Results: The expression of PTBP1 in most tumor tissues was higher than that in normal tissues. Survival analysis indicated that overexpression of PTBP1 generally predicted poor overall survival in patients with tumors such as adrenocortical carcinoma, liver hepatocellular carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, and skin cutaneous melanoma. In addition, we compared the phosphorylation and immune infiltration of PTBP1 in cancer-associated fibroblasts between normal and primary tumor tissues and explored the putative functional mechanism of tumorigenesis mediated by PTBP1. Conclusion: These results provide clues to better understand PTBP1 from the perspective of bioinformatics and highlight its importance in various human cancers.