ncRNAs-mediated overexpression of STIL predict unfavorable prognosis and correlated with the efficacy of immunotherapy of hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: STIL centriolar assembly protein (STIL) is a cytoplasmic protein implicated in cellular growth and proliferation as well as chromosomal stability, which abnormal condition affected tumor immunity and tumor progression. However, the role of STIL in the biological mechanism of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. Methods: Comprehensive bioinformatic approaches, in vitro functional assays, and validation were conducted to elucidate the oncogenic value of STIL in HCC. Results: In the present study, we found that STIL may serve as an independent prognostic indicator and a potential oncogene in HCC. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and Gene set variation analysis (GSVA) showed that upregulated expression of STIL was positively associated with pathways enriched in the cell cycle and DNA damage response. Subsequently, we identified several non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) accounting for the upregulation of STIL expression using a combination of in silico bioinformatics approaches (including expression analysis, correlation analysis, and survival analysis). Finally, CCNT2-AS1/SNHG1-has-miR-204-5p-STIL axis was screened out as the most potential upstream ncRNA-related pathway of STIL in HCC. Moreover, STIL expression is highly associated with the infiltration of immune cells, the expression of immune checkpoints, as well as the survival benefit of immunotherapy/chemotherapy. Conclusions: Our study discloses that ncRNAs-mediated overexpression of STIL independently predicted poor prognosis and correlated with the efficacy of PD-1-targeted immunotherapy in HCC.