Junjie Zhang

Dr. Junjie Zhang


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

1Year (2026-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
26 August 2026 in Biomedicines
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
DHDai Huiru
Dai Huiru
YLYajie Li
Yajie Li
JZJunjie Zhang
Junjie Zhang
MLMINLING LIU
MINLING LIU
TLTingwei Li
Tingwei Li
SFShuo Fang
Shuo Fang
Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a major cause of cancer-related mortality, and responses to immune checkpoint blockade are often limited. Casein kinase 2 beta (CK2beta), encoded by CSNK2B, has established tumor-intrinsic functions, but its relationship with immune states in HCC remains unclear. Methods: We integrated TCGA-LIHC, six GEO cohort-platform combinations, GSE149614 single-cell RNA sequencing data, CIBERSORTx deconvolution, broad-compartment CellChat inference, and public proteomic resources. We evaluated CSNK2B expression, overall survival, a prespecified GDF15-associated Treg/checkpoint transcriptional module, tumor microenvironment features, compartment-level localization, and protein-level support. Results: CSNK2B was upregulated in TCGA-LIHC and all six external cohort-platform comparisons but was not a robust prognostic marker. The strongest immune association was with the GDF15-associated Treg/checkpoint module (Spearman rho = 0.371, q = 2.9 × 10−12); the direction was positive in all six GEO analyses and four passed BH-FDR. Deconvolution results were small and heterogeneous. CSNK2B and GDF15 were most prominent in hepatocyte-like compartments, while the candidate hepatocyte-to-T/NK GDF15–TGFBR2 pair was not reproduced in pooled data or in any of 10 patient-stratified CellChat runs. Public proteomic datasets supported tumor-side elevation of both proteins. Conclusions: CSNK2B expression aligns with a reproducible GDF15-associated transcriptional state in HCC, accompanied by selective stromal, endothelial, and immune-context changes. The evidence is associative and provides hypotheses for perturbation, spatial, and co-culture validation rather than a causal or treatment-prediction claim.