Clinical characterization, genetic profiling, and immune infiltration of TOX in diffuse gliomas

Abstract Background: Immunotherapies targeting glioblastoma (GBM) have led to significant improvements in patient outcomes. TOX is closely associated with the immune environment surrounding tumors, but its role in gliomas is not fully understood. Methods: Using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), we analyzed the transcriptomes of 1691 WHO grade I-IV human glioma samples. The R language was used to perform most of the statistical analyses. Somatic mutations and somatic copy number variation (CNV) were analyzed using GISTIC 2.0. Results: TOX was down-regulated in malignant gliomas compared to low grade gliomas, and upregulated in the proneural and IDH mutant subtypes of GBM. TOXlow tumours are associated with the loss of PTEN and amplification of EGFR, while TOXhigh tumours harbor frequent mutations in IDH1 (91%). TOX was highly expressed in leading edge regions of tumours. Gene ontology and pathway analyses demonstrated that TOX was enriched in multiple immune related processes including lymphocyte migration in GBM. Finally, TOX had a negative association with the infiltration of several immune cell types in the tumour microenvironment. Conclusion: TOX has the potential to be a new prognostic marker for GBM.