Investigation on Potential Correlation Between Small Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Polypeptide A and Lung Cancer

Abstract

<i>SNRPA</i> (small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide A) gene is essential for the pre-mRNA splicing process. Using the available datasets of TCGA or GEO, we aimed at exploring the potential association between the <i>SNRPA</i> gene and lung cancer by several online tools (such as GEIPA2, MEXPRESS, Oncomine) and bioinformatics analysis software (R or GSEA). <i>SNRPA</i> was highly expressed in the tissues of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma tissue (LUSC), compared with control tissues. The high SNRPA expression was associated with a poor survival prognosis of LUAD cases, while the genetic alteration within <i>SNRPA</i> was linked to the overall survival prognosis of LUSC cases. There was a potential correlation between promoter methylation and the expression of <i>SNRPA</i> for LUAD. Compared with normal tissues, we observed a higher phosphorylation level at the S115 site of SNRPA protein (NP_004587.1) (<i>p</i> = 0.002) in the primary LUAD tissues. The potential ATR kinase of the S115 site was predicted. Besides, <i>SNRPA</i> expression in lung cancer was negatively correlated with the infiltration level of M2 macrophage but positively correlated with that of Follicular B helper T cells, in both LUAD and LUSC. The enrichment analysis of <i>SNRPA</i>-correlated genes showed that cell cycle and ubiquitin mechanism-related issues were mainly observed for LUAD; however, RNA splicing-related cellular issues were mainly for LUSC. In summary, the <i>SNRPA</i> gene was identified as a potential prognosis biomarker of lung cancer, especially lung adenocarcinoma, which sheds new light on the association between the spliceosomal complex component and tumorigenesis.