IL1R2 is a Novel Prognostic Biomarker for Lung Adenocarcinoma

Aims: The aim of this study is to figure out the role of IL1R2 in LUAD (lung adenocarcinoma). Background: IL1R2, a special member of IL-1 receptor family, binds to IL-1 and plays an important role in inhibiting IL-1 pathway, which seems to be involved in tumorigenesis. Emerging studies demonstrated higher IL1R2 expression levels in several malignancies. Objective: In the present study, we assessed the expression of IL1R2 in LUAD tissues with immunohistochemistry and explored various databases to determine whether it could be a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target. Methods: The expression level of IL1R2 in lung adenocarcinoma was analyzed by Immunohistochemistry and UALCAN database. The correlation between IL1R2 expression and the patient prognosis was identified by Kaplan-Meier plotter. The correlation of IL1R2 expression with immune infiltrates was clarified by TIMER database. The protein-protein interaction network and gene functional enrichment analysis were constructed and performed by STRING and Metascape database. Results: Immunohistochemistry showed that the expression of IL1R2 was higher in tumor tissues of LUAD patients and that patients with lower IL1R2 level have a better prognosis than their counterparts. We validated our findings in several online databases and found that IL1R2 gene was also positively correlated with B cells and neutrophils and biomarkers of CD8⁺T cells and exhausted T cells. PPI network and gene enrichment analyses showed that expression of IL1R2 was also associated with complex functionspecific networks involving IL-1 signal, NF-KappaB transcription factors. Conclusion: According to these findings, we demonstrated that IL1R2 was involved in the progression and prognosis of LUAD and the underlying mechanism needs further investigation.