Background AKR7A3 is a newly identified tumor-associated molecule that plays a very important role in the occurrence and development of cancer. However, its role in gastric carcinoma (GC) has been less studied.

Objective To investigate the clinical significance and prognostic value of AKR7A3 in gastric cancer and verify its impact on the biological functions of gastric cancer cells through in vitro cytological experiments.

Methods In our study, different databases and tools, including GEPIA, TCGA, GDSC and R software, were applied to analyze the impact of AKR7A3 on clinical prognosis and medication effects. The CCK8 assay was used to detect cell proliferation, the scratch assay to measure cell migration, the Transwell assay to assess cell migration and invasion, and flow cytometry to evaluate apoptosis and cell cycle. The biological functions of AKR7A3 in gastric cancer cells were validated through in vitro cellular experiments.

Results The expression of AKR7A3 was down-regulated in GC tissues significantly (P＜0.05). Furthermore, patients in low AKR7A3 expression group had shorter overall survival and worse disease-free survival (DFS) than those in high expression group (P＜0.05). Based on the findings, AKR7A3 might have predictive value of clinical prognosis, and might affect the occurrence and development of gastric cancer through signaling pathways such as Nitrogen metabolism, which was associated with the sensitivity of chemotherapy drugs such as salubrinal and lapatinib. In addition, AKR7A3 was able to inhibit cell proliferation, promote apoptosis, suppress cell migration and increase MDA levels.

Conclusion AKR7A3 plays an important role in the prognosis, chemotherapeutic selection and the therapeutic efficacy in gastric cancer patients. As a tumour suppressor gene in gastric cancer cells, it can inhibit tumour cell proliferation and migration and promote apoptosis.