Fig. 1: Lysophosphatidic acid is a prognostic marker in solid tumor malignancies.

A Analysis of data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) on progression free survival. Data was taken as pan-cancer data from all solid tumors in cBioPortal from the complete curated non-redundant studies and accessed on June 18, 2021. Cohorts were stratified based on genomic status of amplification of ENPP2, MYC, or wildtype for both genes. Amplification cohorts are tumors displaying amplification of either ENPP2 or MYC in the absence of a co-occurring alteration in the other gene. The ANOVA statistical test with post-hoc analysis was performed where ***p < 0.0001. B mRNA z-scores of exhaustion markers from TCGA data with samples stratified by high and low ENPP2 expression representing the top 25% and bottom 25% of ENPP2 expressing melanoma tumors. Descriptive statistics are as follows for low ENPP2: number of values = 91, minimum = −21.76, 25% percentile = −8.777, median = −2.278, 75% percentile = 3.966, maximum = 11.80, range = 33.56, mean = −2.863. Descriptive statistics are as follows for high ENPP2: number of values = 91, minimum = −24.17, 25% percentile = −6.980, median = 2.438, 75% percentile = 9.988, maximum = 17.75, range = 41.92, mean = 1.634. Statistics show the unpaired two-sided Student’s t-test analysis was performed where n = 363 samples and ***p < 0.0005 where p = 0.0004. C, D tSNE plots of (C) LPAR5 expression in melanoma and immune cells and (D) corresponding immune cell populations. tSNE plots were generated using the Single Cell Portal (https://singlecell.broadinstitute.org/single_cell). E Two-sided Spearman correlation analysis of LPAR5 expression and “exhaustion” signature from bulk RNA sequencing on TCGA melanoma tumors where p < 0.0001. F Relative abundance of LPA in stage IV melanoma responder patients (blue symbols; complete response and partial response where n = 3 patients) or non-responders (red symbols; stable disease and progressive disease where n = 6 patients) measured both pre- and post-treatment. The unpaired two-sided Student’s t-test analysis was performed where *p < 0.05 and p = 0.0313. Error bars represent standard error of the mean.