Fig. 1: TNK2 expression negatively correlates with immune infiltration and prognosis in PDAC.

a Schematic illustration of the screening strategy created created in BioRender. wu, c. (2025) https://BioRender.com/9r8yhl5. b Representative spatial partition showing “Cold_desert” zones and “Hot_inflammatory” zones defined by CD8⁺ T cell distribution; 120 spots were randomly sampled from “Cold_desert” and 160 from “Hot_inflammatory” across 10 cases (GSM3036911). Each spot diameter 50 µm. Differential expression genes between the two spot groups are provided as DEGs1 in Supplementary Data 1. c Representative images grouping into “Cold_desert” samples and “Hot_inflammatory” samples based on CD8⁺ T cell infiltration across the same 10 cases (GSM3036911); differential expression genes between two groups are provided as DEGs2 in Supplementary Data 2. d Representative mIHC images from 13 cases (HRA000433) illustrating “Cold_desert” tumors and “Hot_inflammatory” tumors. And 100 areas were randomly sampled from “Cold_desert” tumors and 80 from “Hot_inflammatory” tumors for CD8⁺ T cell fraction quantification; each area diameter 100 µm. Differential expression genes between two groups are provided as DEGs3 in Supplementary Data 3. CD8⁺T cells: red, CK19: cyan, nucleus: blue. e DEG4 denotes tumor versus normal differential expression genes from TCGA-PAAD and GTEx that are positively associated with the immunosuppressive state within TCGA tumors (provided in Supplementary Data 4). f Venn diagram showing the intersection used to derive genes positively associated with the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in PDAC. Four differential gene sets were intersected. Selection thresholds were: DEGs1 log2FC ≥ 1.5, p < 0.05; DEGs2 log2FC ≥ 1.3, p < 0.05; DEGs3 log2FC ≥ 1.5, p < 0.05; DEGs4 log2FC ≥ 1.0, p < 0.05. g The representative images of TNK2 IHC staining at different expression levels (n = 70 independent samples). h The heatmap of the differential expression of TNK2 in 70 pairs of tumor tissues (T) and corresponding adjacent non-tumor tissues (N). i, j Survival analysis of PDAC patients with low and high TNK2 expression based on the dataset of TJMUCH, and p value from log-rank test are shown. k Statistical analysis of OS, RFS and PFS based on a multi-center retrospective cohort for TNK2 Hazard ratio (GSE78229: n = 49; GSE62452: n = 65; GSE71729: n = 125; ICGC-PAAD-AU seq: n = 81; TCGA-PAAD: n = 150; ICGC-PAAD-AU-array: n = 103; E-MTAB-6134: n = 288; ICGC-PAAD-CA-seq: n = 113. All n represents independent samples). Hazard ratio with 95% confidence intervals, box shows the interquartile range (IQR), line indicates the median, and whiskers the min/max values; tests two sided; exact p values are reported in the legends. Scale bars:100 µm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.