Comprehensive Landscape of ARID Family Members and Their Association with Prognosis and Tumor Microenvironment in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

As one of the most lethal forms of cancers, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) claims many lives around the world, and it is especially common in China. The ARID family plays key roles in the pathogenesis and development of human cancers. The potential of several functional genes used as novel biomarkers has attracted more and more attention. However, the prognostic values of the ARID family in HCC patients are rarely known by people. In this study, we performed comprehensive analysis using TCGA datasets, finding that the expressions of ARID4B, ARID2, ARID3B, JARID2, ARID1A, ARID1B, and ARID3A were increased in HCC specimens compared to nontumor specimens, while the expressions of ARID4A and ARID3C were decreased in HCC specimens. According to the Pearson correlation data, the methylation levels of the majority of ARID members were negatively correlated. Upregulation of ARID3A, ARID5B, and ARID1A was related to a poor HCC outcome according to the data of multivariate assays. Then, we built a LASSO Cox regression model based on ARID3A, ARID5B, and ARID1A in HCC. Overall survival rates were considerably lower for those with high risk scores compared to those with low risk scores. Finally, we studied the associations between risk scores and several types of infiltrating immune cells. The data revealed that the risk score was positively related to the infiltration of CD8+ T cells, B cell, T cell CD8+, neutrophil, macrophage, and myeloid dendritic cell. This study conducted a thorough analysis of the ARID members, resulting in new insights for further examination of the ARID family members as prospective targets in the treatment of HCC.