DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer

Abstract Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological malignancy. Although prognosis is favorable for patients with an early-stage disease, those with recurrent or more advanced disease have low response rates to chemotherapy and poor clinical outcomes. Previously, we have shown that DNA...

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Main Authors: Cristofer Barry, Aashirwad Shahi, Dawit Kidane
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-05-01
Series:Scientific Reports
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-00393-9
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author Cristofer Barry
Aashirwad Shahi
Dawit Kidane
author_facet Cristofer Barry
Aashirwad Shahi
Dawit Kidane
author_sort Cristofer Barry
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological malignancy. Although prognosis is favorable for patients with an early-stage disease, those with recurrent or more advanced disease have low response rates to chemotherapy and poor clinical outcomes. Previously, we have shown that DNA repair gene (NEIL3) is required for retaining replication fork integrity during replication stress. Here, we examined whether the overexpression of NEIL3 in endometrial cancer associated with altered genomic instability, tumor immunogenicity and anti-tumor immunity in endometrial tumor. In this study, we show that endometrial cancer patients with tumors that a have high NEIL3 expression associated with worse overall survival (OS) outcomes in patients. In addition, tumor with high NEIL3 expression is associated with high number of mutation and chromosomal instability. Furthermore, NEIL3 expression in EC tumors positively correlated with mutation of DNA polymerase eta (POLE) and TP53 as well as high expression of replicative polymerases genes (POLE, POLD1 and POLA1). In contrast, tumor with high NEIL3 expression exhibit low tumor immunogenicity and poor anti-tumor immune cell infiltration. Our findings may have important clinical implications for utilizing NEIL3 as a potential prognostic biomarker to stratify EC patients and as a target to enhance immunotherapy response in endometrial cancer. However, our NEIL3 overexpression associated observation still requires further experimental-based scientific validation studies.
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spelling doaj-art-4f1cc685a17c461b80d99c5a61f8f2ff2025-08-20T03:53:13ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-05-0115111010.1038/s41598-025-00393-9DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancerCristofer Barry0Aashirwad Shahi1Dawit Kidane2Department of Physiology & Biophysics, College of Medicine, Howard UniversityDepartment of Physiology & Biophysics, College of Medicine, Howard UniversityDepartment of Physiology & Biophysics, College of Medicine, Howard UniversityAbstract Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological malignancy. Although prognosis is favorable for patients with an early-stage disease, those with recurrent or more advanced disease have low response rates to chemotherapy and poor clinical outcomes. Previously, we have shown that DNA repair gene (NEIL3) is required for retaining replication fork integrity during replication stress. Here, we examined whether the overexpression of NEIL3 in endometrial cancer associated with altered genomic instability, tumor immunogenicity and anti-tumor immunity in endometrial tumor. In this study, we show that endometrial cancer patients with tumors that a have high NEIL3 expression associated with worse overall survival (OS) outcomes in patients. In addition, tumor with high NEIL3 expression is associated with high number of mutation and chromosomal instability. Furthermore, NEIL3 expression in EC tumors positively correlated with mutation of DNA polymerase eta (POLE) and TP53 as well as high expression of replicative polymerases genes (POLE, POLD1 and POLA1). In contrast, tumor with high NEIL3 expression exhibit low tumor immunogenicity and poor anti-tumor immune cell infiltration. Our findings may have important clinical implications for utilizing NEIL3 as a potential prognostic biomarker to stratify EC patients and as a target to enhance immunotherapy response in endometrial cancer. However, our NEIL3 overexpression associated observation still requires further experimental-based scientific validation studies.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-00393-9Endometrial cancerNEIL3Genomic instabilityTumor immunelandscape
spellingShingle Cristofer Barry
Aashirwad Shahi
Dawit Kidane
DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer
Scientific Reports
Endometrial cancer
NEIL3
Genomic instability
Tumor immunelandscape
title DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer
title_full DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer
title_fullStr DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer
title_full_unstemmed DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer
title_short DNA glycosylase (NEIL3) overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer
title_sort dna glycosylase neil3 overexpression associated with low tumor immune infiltration and poor overall patient survival in endometrial cancer
topic Endometrial cancer
NEIL3
Genomic instability
Tumor immunelandscape
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-00393-9
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AT aashirwadshahi dnaglycosylaseneil3overexpressionassociatedwithlowtumorimmuneinfiltrationandpooroverallpatientsurvivalinendometrialcancer
AT dawitkidane dnaglycosylaseneil3overexpressionassociatedwithlowtumorimmuneinfiltrationandpooroverallpatientsurvivalinendometrialcancer