Matrix Metallopeptidase 14: A Candidate Prognostic Biomarker for Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Background: Matrix metallopeptidase 14 (MMP14) is an important gene in the regulation of T cell function. However, the correlation between MMP14 expression, and prognosis, and immune cell infiltration in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) remains unclear. Methods: We investigated the influence of MMP14 on clinical prognosis using data obtained from three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database sets (GSE98588, GSE10846, and GSE4475). The expression of MMP14 was analyzed using the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). The correlation between MMP14 and immune cell infiltration was investigated using the Cell-type Identification By Estimating Relative Subsets Of RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT) and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) tools. In addition, the correlation between MMP14 expression and immune gene markers was analyzed by TIMER and GEPIA. Results: MMP14 expression positively correlated with favorable progression-free survival (PFS) (GSE98588, P = 0.02) and overall survival (OS) (GSE98588, P = 0.003; GSE10846, P = 5.517e-05; GSE4475, P = 9.85e-04). Moreover, MMP14 expression was higher in DLBCL tumors than normal tissues. Regarding clinical characteristics, we found that high MMP14 expression was correlated with race. MMP14 expression was also correlated with immune cell infiltration and showed a strong correlation with diverse immune marker sets. We found that M0 macrophages were the immune cells most related to survival, decreasing with the increase of Ann Arbor clinical stage. Especially, we showed that MMP14 was a prognostic biomarker and related to the macrophages M0. Conclusion: Our results suggest that MMP14 is a novel prognostic biomarker for DLBCL, and is related to the immune cell infiltration, especially related to the macrophages M0. Our study provides insights for understanding the potential roles of MMP14 in tumor immunology and its suitability as a prognosis biomarker in DLBCL. Keywords: MMP14, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, immune cell infiltration, prognosis, biomarker.