Pan-cancer analysis reveals MTTP as a prognostic and immunotherapeutic biomarker in human tumors

作者：Wenjia Wang, Yaping Gao, Yihan Liu, Shurui Xia, Jiayao Xu, Liwei Qin, Yongxu Jia, Yanru Qin · 发表于：Frontiers in Immunology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3389/fimmu.2025.1549965 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis、Cancer, Lipids, and Metabolism、Cancer, Stress, Anesthesia, and Immune Response

Introduction Microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTTP) is an essential lipid transfer protein for the synthesis and secretion of very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) in hepatocytes and chylomicrons (CM) in intestinal cells. Further researches have revealed that MTTP exerted its functions in a variety of tissues beyond the liver and intestine, including the heart, neural tissues and antigen-presenting cells. Dysregulation of MTTP expression can lead to many diseases, such as lipid metabolism disorders, insulin resistance and cardiovascular diseases. Despite its importance, research on MTTP in cancer is limited, with no comprehensive pan-cancer studies available. Methods MTTP expression was explored with the TIMER 2.0 and Sangerbox databases. The pathological stages and survival analysis of MTTP were analyzed via GEPIA and Kaplan Meier plotter. The gene mutations of MTTP were analyzed by cBioPortal database. The immune landscape of MTTP in the tumor microenvironment(TME) was analyzed using the TIMER 2.0 and single-cell sequencing. Based on the RNA-seq data in TCGA, we constructed GSEA enrichment analysis for MTTP. We identified the pro-tumor and anti-ferroptosis functions of MTTP in gastric cancer (GC) cells by in vitro and in vivo experiments, and analyzed the effect of TME on ferroptosis by single-cell sequencing. Results MTTP expression was elevated in at least 1/3 tumors. High expression of MTTP was associated with poor prognosis in most tumors. MTTP levels were signif...