Identification of potential biomarkers associated with immune infiltration in the esophageal carcinoma tumor microenvironment

Tumor immune cell infiltration was significantly correlated with the progression and the effect of immunotherapy in cancers including esophageal carcinoma (ESCA). However, no biomarkers were identified which were associated with immune infiltration in ESCA. In the present study, a total of 128 common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinomas (EAC). The results of gene ontology (GO) enrichment and Reactome pathway analysis displayed that the up-regulated DEGs were mainly involved in the regulation of extracellular matrix (ECM), while the down-regulated DEGs were mainly involved in the regulation of cornification and keratinocyte differentiation. The most significant module of up-regulated DEGs was selected by Molecular Complex Detection (MCODE). Top ten similar genes of COL1A2 were explored, then validation and the prognostic analysis of these genes displayed that COL1A2, COL1A1, COL3A1, ZNF469 and Periostin (POSTN) had the prognostic value which were up-regulated in ESCA. The expressions of COL1A2 and its four similar genes were mainly correlated with infiltrating levels of macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) and showed strong correlations with diverse immune marker sets in ESCA. To summarize, COL1A2 and its four similar genes were identified as the potential biomarkers associated with immune infiltration in ESCA. These genes might be applied to immunotherapy for ESCA.