Pan-cancer expression, methylation, and prognostic significance of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in tumor immunology

Abstract The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR), functioning as a critical ligand-gated ion channel in the nervous system, has recently been implicated to play a role in various non-neuronal tissues. Nonetheless, a comprehensive understanding of its expression patterns, mechanisms of epigenetic control, and functions within the tumor microenvironment (TME) across various malignancies is still lacking. To address this gap, we performed an extensive multi-cancer investigation of CHRNA7 spanning 31 tumor types, leveraging datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue