HJURP is a prognostic biomarker for clear cell renal cell carcinoma and is linked to immune infiltration

Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most prevalent and highly malignant pathological type of kidney cancer. Finding more precise biomarkers is critical for enhancing the prognosis of patients with ccRCC. Multiple studies have suggested that Holliday junction recognition protein (HJURP) promotes tumor progression and predicts poor prognosis in a variety of cancers. However, the role of HJURP in ccRCC remains unclear. Methods: The ccRCC dataset was obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and the relationship between HJURP expression and ccRCC clinical features was investigated using R software. The effect of HJURP expression on survival was assessed using survival probabilities and Cox regression. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify HJURP-related signaling pathways in ccRCC. Finally, Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource (TIMER) and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) were used to analyze the correlation between HJURP expression and immunocyte infiltrates in ccRCC. Results: HJURP expression was upregulated in ccRCC. Increased HJURP expression was associated with poor pathological features and correlated with poor prognosis in patients with ccRCC. Cox regression further found that HJURP expression was a high-risk factor for ccRCC patients. GSEA revealed that HJURP was closely linked to multiple immune-related signaling pathways. In ccRCC, HJURP expression was closely correlated with infiltration of various immune cells and expression of a wide range of immunocyte gene markers. Conclusion: HJURP is a potential independent prognostic marker in ccRCC that plays an essential role in the tumor microenvironment by regulating immunocyte infiltration.