Arginase 2 is a Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker for Prostate Cancer and Is Associated with Metabolism.

Objective: Metabolism, a basic need and biochemical process for cell survival and proliferation, is closely connected with the pathogenesis and progression of prostate cancer.
Methods: A four-gene signature construct that includes CKM (CKM), CD38, Enoyl Coenzyme A(EHHADH), and Arginase 2(ARG2) was created by bioinformatics. Finally, hub genes were validated by IHC and in vitro experiments.
Results: The results showed the AUCs of the logistic regression and neural networks diagnostic model for the diagnosis of two subtypes were 0.920 and 0.936, respectively. The risk score demonstrated by univariable and multivariable Cox analysis is an independent predictive component of the prognostic signature for DFS. According to immunohistochemical analyses, ARG2 and CD38 expression levels were considerably under-expressed, but CKM and EHHADH expression levels were significantly overexpressed. Furthermore, The expression of ARG2 was significantly down-regulated in the late Gleason score. Finally, we found that ARG2 is lowly expressed in prostate cancer cells. Furthermore, based on the effect of ARG2 on the malignant phenotype of PCa in vitro, we also found that ARG2 may be a tumor suppressor that plays an important role in inhibiting proliferation, migration, and invasion.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that ARG2 has been tentatively identified as a new target for research into how PCa develops in metabolism and for the development of innovative targeted treatments.