Yu J, Yu B, Ge FL, Ren ZG. Pescadillo ribosomal biogenesis factor 1 as a therapeutic target in tumor immunotherapy. World J Gastroenterol 2025; 31(41): 110367 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i41.110367]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zhi-Gang Ren, Department of Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Antiviral Drugs, Pingyuan Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Jianshe East Road, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China. fccrenzg@zzu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2025; 31(41): 110367 Published online Nov 7, 2025. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v31.i41.110367
Pescadillo ribosomal biogenesis factor 1 as a therapeutic target in tumor immunotherapy
Jia Yu, Bo Yu, Fei-Lin Ge, Zhi-Gang Ren
Jia Yu, Zhi-Gang Ren, Department of Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Antiviral Drugs, Pingyuan Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Bo Yu, Department of Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Fei-Lin Ge, Department of Chinese Medicine, State Key Laboratory of Antiviral Drugs, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Co-first authors: Jia Yu and Bo Yu.
Author contributions: Yu J contributed to the project administration, formal analysis, data visualization and manuscript writing; Yu J and Ren ZG contributed to the study conceptualization; Yu B and Ge FL contributed to the data curation and formal analysis; Ren ZG contributed to the methodology design, project supervision, and data validation. All authors have reviewed, edited, read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. The efforts put forth by Yu J and Yu B were equal in weight and critical nature for the completion of this investigation and letter, meriting co-first authorship.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82470654; and the Natural Science Foundation Key Project of Henan Province, No. 232300421124.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Gang Ren, Department of Infectious Diseases, State Key Laboratory of Antiviral Drugs, Pingyuan Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Jianshe East Road, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China. fccrenzg@zzu.edu.cn
Received: June 10, 2025 Revised: September 2, 2025 Accepted: September 28, 2025 Published online: November 7, 2025 Processing time: 151 Days and 18.6 Hours
Abstract
High expression of pescadillo ribosomal biogenesis factor 1 (PES1) has been reported across multiple cancer types and is significantly associated with poor prognosis. Hu et al in their recent paper described their investigation of PES1 in gastric cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, demonstrating positive correlations between PES1 and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression (51.72% for PES1 and 58.62% for PD-L1), as well as associations with lymph node metastasis and tumor invasion depth. However, the relationship between PES1 and PD-L1 remains incompletely defined. To further address this gap, we analyzed The Cancer Genome Atlas gastric adenocarcinoma dataset and found a negative correlation between PES1 expression and CD8+ T cell infiltration, alongside a positive correlation with PD-L1 expression. Based on prior findings, we hypothesize that PES1 may regulate PD-L1 through the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B pathway or cellular Myc-mediated mechanisms. While these pathways require experimental validation, our observations highlight PES1 as a potential regulator of immune evasion and a promising target for cancer immunotherapy.
Core Tip: In gastric cancer and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, pescadillo ribosomal biogenesis factor 1 (PES1) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) show significant co-expression. Across multiple tumor types, elevated PES1 is linked to poor prognosis and aggressive tumor behavior. Our analysis further reveals that PES1 expression negatively correlates with CD8+ T cell infiltration and positively correlates with PD-L1 expression. These findings suggest opportunities for combination cancer immunotherapy, although the molecular basis of PES1-PD-L1 interactions and the therapeutic benefit of dual targeting require further experimental validation.
