NEK2 is a potential pan-cancer biomarker and immunotherapy target

Background. NEK2 is a member of the NEKs family and plays an important role in cell mitosis. Increasing evidence suggests that NEK2 is associated with the development of multiple tumors, but systematic studies of NEK2 in cancer are still lacking. Therefore, we evaluated the prognostic value of NEK2 in 33 cancers to elucidate the potential function of NEK2 in pan-cancers. Methods. We explored the role of NEK2 in pan-cancers using The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)and Genotype-tissue expression༈GTEx༉database, and we also analyzed the association between NEK2 pan-cancers gene expression, protein expression, tumor microenvironment༈TME), and drug sensitivity through various software and web platforms such as R, CCLE, the Human protein atlas༈HPA༉, cBioPortal, CancerSEA and GEPIA 2. 0.We also conducted in vitro experiments to preliminarily verify the function of NEK2 in cervical cancer. Results. NEK2 is overexpressed in almost all tumors, and mutation of NEK2 are associated with a poorer tumor prognosis. In addition, the correlation between NEK2 and immune features such as immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, tumor mutational burden(TMB), Microsatellite instability(MSI) etc. suggest that NEK2 could potentially be applied in the immunotherapy of tumors. Conclusion. NEK2 may be a potential pan-cancer biomarker and immunotherapeutic target for improving the efficacy of tumor therapy.