NOL11 is a novel prognostic biomarker associated with immune infiltration and tumor progression in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a highly lethal malignancy, and the lack of reliable biomarkers for prognosis assessment and therapeutic guidance continues to limit effective clinical management. Nucleolar protein 11 (NOL11), an important regulator of ribosomal biogenesis and cellular homeostasis, has remained to be fully characterized in HCC. The present study aimed to systematically investigate the expression pattern, prognostic significance, immune relevance and biological function of NOL11 in HCC using transcriptomic and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas, together with in vitro functional assays. NOL11 was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues and was associated with advanced clinicopathological features and poor overall survival. Immune infiltration analysis revealed that NOL11 expression was correlated with distinct immune cell populations, particularly macrophage subsets, and functional enrichment analysis indicated involvement in tumor-related pathways, including the PI3K-Akt and MAPK signaling pathways. In addition, an eight-gene prognostic risk model based on NOL11-related genes was established using LASSO Cox regression, which effectively stratified patient survival and served as an independent prognostic factor. High-risk patients exhibited elevated tumor mutational burden and increased expression of immune checkpoint molecules, including programmed cell death 1 and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4, suggesting potential relevance to immunotherapy responsiveness. Furthermore, NOL11 knockdown significantly inhibited HCC-cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. Collectively, these findings suggest that NOL11 plays an important role in HCC progression and tumor immune microenvironment remodeling, and that the NOL11-related risk model may serve as a useful prognostic tool, highlighting NOL11 as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in HCC.