Prognostic role of MUCIN family and its relationship with immune characteristics and tumor biology in diffuse-type gastric cancer

The main component of O-glycoproteins, mucin, is known to play important roles in physiological conditions and oncogenic processes, particularly correlated with poor prognosis in different carcinomas. Diffuse-type gastric cancer (DGC) has long been associated with genomic stability and unfavorable clinical outcomes. To investigate further, we obtained clinical information and the RNA-seq data of the TCGA-STAD cohort. Through the use of unsupervised clustering methods and GSEA, we identified two distinct clusters, characterized by higher and lower expression of MUC2 and MUC20, denoted as cluster 1 and cluster 2, respectively. Subsequently, employing CIBERSORT, it was determined that cluster 2 exhibited a higher tumor mutation burden (TMB) and a greater abundance of CD8+ T cells and activated CD4+ memory T cells, in addition to immune checkpoints (ICPs). On the other hand, cluster 1 showed a lower TIDE score estimation, indicating a higher probability of tumor immune escape. Furthermore, overexpression of MUC15 and MUC20 was confirmed through qPCR and Western blotting, and their specific roles in mediating the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of GC cells (SNU484 and Hs746t) were validated via CCK-8 assay and wound healing assay in vitro. These findings highlight the potential prognostic value of MUC20 and offer insights into the prospects of immunotherapy for DGC by targeting MUC20.