Potassium channels are often highly expressed in
cancer cells with respect to healthy ones, as they provide proliferative advantages through modulating membrane potential,
calcium homeostasis, and various signaling pathways. Among
potassium channels, Shaker type voltage-gated Kv channels are emerging as promising pharmacological targets in oncology. Here, we queried publicly available
cancer patient databases to highlight if a correlation exists between Kv channel expression and survival rate in five different
cancer types. By multiple gene comparison analysis, we found a predominant expression of KCNA2, KCNA3, and KCNA5 with respect to the other KCNA genes in skin cutaneous
melanoma (SKCM), uterine corpus
endometrial carcinoma (UCEC), stomach
adenocarcinoma (STAD),
lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and lung
squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC). This analysis highlighted a prognostic role of KCNA3 and KCNA5 in SKCM, LUAD, LUSC, and STAD, respectively. Interestingly, KCNA3 was associated with a positive prognosis in SKCM and LUAD but not in LUSC. Results obtained by the analysis of KCNA3-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs);
tumor immune cell infiltration highlighted differences that may account for such differential prognosis. A meta-analysis study was conducted to investigate the role of KCNA channels in
cancer using
cancer patients' datasets. Our study underlines a promising correlation between Kv channel expression in
tumor cells, in infiltrating immune cells, and survival rate.