Expression of Tumor Suppressor SFRP1 Predicts Biological Behaviors and Prognosis: A Potential Target for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: Genomic instability is implicated in the initiation and progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Tumor suppressor Secreted Frizzled-Related Protein 1 (SFRP1) may participate in the aberrant evolution of OSCC, the intrinsic molecular mechanisms of which may provide effective therapeutic targets. Methods: A bioinformatics analysis was carried out on a publicly available database using R language to map the prognostic value, immune infiltration and enrichment of SFRP1 expression. Subsequently, in vitro experiments were conducted to unveil the biological function of SFRP1. Results: SFRP1 was found to be ubiquitously lowly expressed in OSCC using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Univariate analysis confirmed that those patients characterized by a low SFRP1 expression were significantly associated with advanced T-stage, clinical stage and poor mortality (p < 0.05). Furthermore, SFRP1 displayed a positive performance in tumor immune infiltration, especially in mast cells. Functional annotations indicated that highly expressed SFRP1 was associated with membrane potential and passive transmembrane transporter activity and it was mainly enriched in calcium pathway and neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction. In vitro, the overexpression of SFRP1 inhibited its proliferation, migration, and invasion and resulted in G0+G1 phase arrest within Ca127 cells (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The bioinformation data suggest that SFRP1 expression provides an insight into the risk and prognostic stratification in OSCC. SFRP1 was validated as a potential biomarker with anticarcinogenic behaviors for use in targeted therapy.