Systematic pan-cancer analysis of RNF186 with potential implications in progression and prognosis in human cancer

AIMS: Cancer remains a significant global public health issue. There is growing proof that Ring Finger Protein 186 (RNF186) may play a function in pan-cancer, however, this has not yet been thoroughly determined. This study aims to analyze RNF186 with potential implications in progression and prognosis in human cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive bioinformatics approaches combined with experimental verification were used across 33 types of cancers in this study to conduct a pan-cancer investigation of RNF186 from the perspectives of gene expression, prognosis, genomic alterations, immunological markers, gene set, and function. KEY FINDINGS: RNF186 is a valuable prognostic biomarker in several cancer types, especially breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA) and uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC). The levels of RNF186 promoter methylation and genetic alterations may be responsible for some cancers' abnormal expression. Furthermore, RNF186 expression was determined to be associated with immune checkpoint genes. Analysis of RNF186-related genes revealed that proteasome and PI3K-AKT signaling pathway were primarily involved in the cellular function of RNF186. Additionally, our research first confirmed that RNF186 may function as an oncogene and contribute to cancer proliferation, migration and invasion in UCEC. In contrast, RNF186 may play an inhibitory role in BRCA progression. This function depends on the ligase activity of RNF186. SIGNIFICANCE: This study suggests that RNF186 is a novel critical target for tumor progression in BRCA and UCEC. It reveals that RNF186 may be associated with tumor immunotherapy, which may provide an effective predictive evaluation of the prognosis of immunotherapy.