scholarly journals Identification of three molecular subtypes based on immune infiltration in ovarian cancer and its prognostic value

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Liu ◽  
Zongjian Tan ◽  
Jun He ◽  
Tingting Jin ◽  
Yuanyuan Han ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Increasing studies suggest that tumor immune infiltration is a relative factor of prognosis in ovarian cancer (OvCa). The present study explored the composition of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) in OvCa using CIBERSORT algorithm and further assessed their values for prognosis and therapeutic strategies by molecular subtypes. Methods: Publicly available databases including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and GTEx were searched. Ovarian tumor samples were available from TCGA, and normal ovarian samples were obtained from the GTEx dataset. The relative proportions of immune cell profiling in OvCa and normal samples were evaluated by CIBERSORT algorithm. Association between each immune cell subtype and survival was inferred by the fractions of 22 immune cell types. “CancerSubtypes” R-package was employed to identify the three types of molecular classification and analyze the functional enrichment in each subclass. Response to immunotherapy and anticancer drug targets was predicted via TIDE algorithm and GDSC dataset. Results: Substantial variation reflecting individual difference was identified between cancer and normal tissues in the immune infiltration profiles. T cells CD4 memory activated, macrophages M1 were associated with improved overall survival (OS) as evaluated by univariate Cox regression and multivariate Cox. Three subtypes were identified by ´CancerSubtypes’ R-package and every sub-cluster possessed specific immune cell characterization. Meanwhile, Cluster II exhibited poor prognosis and sensitive response to immunotherapy. Conclusions: The cellular component of immune infiltration shows remarkable variation in OvCa. Profiling of immune infiltration is useful in prediction of prognosis of OvCa. The results from profiling might be considered in therapeutic modulation.

2020 ◽  
pp. 153537022097202
Author(s):  
Xiaojun Liu ◽  
Jinghai Gao ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Jing Chu ◽  
Jiahao You ◽  
...  

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has increasingly been identified as a key regulator in pathologies such as cancer. Multiple platforms were used for comprehensive analysis of ovarian cancer to identify molecular subgroups. However, lncRNA and its role in mapping the ovarian cancer subpopulation are still largely unknown. RNA-sequencing and clinical characteristics of ovarian cancer were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA). A total of 52 lncRNAs were identified as aberrant immune lncRNAs specific to ovarian cancer. We redefined two different molecular subtypes, C1(188) and C2(184 samples), in “iClusterPlus” R package, among which C2 grouped ovarian cancer samples have higher survival probability and longer median survival time ( P <0.05) with activated IFN-gamma response, Wound Healing and Cytotoxic lymphocytes signal; 456 differentially expressed genes were acquired in C1 and C2 subtypes using limma (3.40.6) package, among which 419 were up-regulated and 37 were down-regulated, in TCGA dataset. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional enrichment analysis revealed that these genes were actively involved in ECM-receptor interaction, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway interaction KEGG pathway. Compared with the existing immune subtype, the Cluster2 sample showed a substantial increase in the proportion of the existing C2 immune subtype, accounting for 81.37%, which was associated with good prognosis. Our C1 subtype contains only 56.49% of the existing immune C1 and C4, which also explains the poor prognosis of C1. Furthermore, 52 immune-related lncRNAs were used to divide the TCGA-endometrial cancer and cervical cancer samples into two categories, and C2 had a good prognosis. The differentially expressed genes were highly correlated with immune-cell-related pathways. Based on lncRNA, two molecular subtypes of ovarian cancer were identified and had significant prognostic differences and immunological characteristics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quanwei Zhou ◽  
Xuejun Yan ◽  
Weidong Liu ◽  
Wen Yin ◽  
Hongjuan Xu ◽  
...  

Diffuse glioma is one of the most prevalent malignancies of the brain, with high heterogeneity of tumor-infiltrating immune cells. However, immune-associated subtypes of diffuse glioma have not been determined, nor has the effect of different immune-associated subtypes on disease prognosis and immune infiltration of diffuse glioma patients. We retrieved the expression profiles of immune-related genes from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) (n = 672) and GSE16011 (n = 268) cohorts and used them to identify subtypes of diffuse glioma via Consensus Cluster Plus analysis. We used the limma, clusterProfiler, ESTIMATE, and survival packages of R for differential analysis, functional enrichment, immune and stromal score evaluation respectively in three subtypes, and performed log-rank tests in immune subtypes of diffuse glioma. The immune-associated features of diffuse glioma in the two cohorts were characterized via bioinformatic analyses of the mRNA expression data of immune-related genes. Three subtypes (C1–3) of diffuse glioma were identified from TCGA data, and were verified using the GSE16011 cohort. We then evaluated their immune characteristics and clinical features. Our mRNA profiling analyses indicated that the different subtypes of diffuse glioma presented differential expression profile of specific genes and signal pathways in the TCGA cohort. Patients with subtype C1, who were mostly diagnosed with grade IV glioma, had poorer outcomes than patients with subtype C2 or C3. Subtype C1 was characterized by a higher degree of immune cell infiltration as estimated by GSVA, and more frequent wildtype IDH1. By contrast, subtype C3 included more grade II and IDH1-mutated glioma, and was associated with more infiltration of CD4+T cells. Most subtype C2 had the features between subtypes C1 and C3. Meanwhile, immune checkpoints and their ligand molecules, including PD1/(PD-L1/PDL2), CTLA4/(CD80/CD86), and B7H3/TLT2, were significantly upregulated in subtype C1 and downregulated in subtype C3. In addition, patients with subtype C1 exhibited more frequent gene mutations. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that diffuse glioma subtype was an effective, independent, and better prognostic factor. Therefore, we established a novel immune-related classification of diffuse glioma, which provides potential immunotherapy targets for diffuse glioma.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lili Fan ◽  
Han Lei ◽  
Ying Lin ◽  
Zhengwei Zhou ◽  
Guang Shu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background : Ovarian cancer (OC) is a serious tumor disease in gynecology. Many papers have reported that high tumor mutational burden (TMB) can generate many neoantigens to result in a higher degree of tumor immune infiltration, so our study aims to predict the key molecules in OC immunotherapy by combined TMB with immunoactivity-related gene. Method: We divided OC cases into two groups: the low & high TMB group hinged on the somatic mutation data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We also used single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) scores of immune cell types to conduct unsupervised clustering of OC patients in the TCGA cohort and some of them were defined as the low & high immunity group. Besides, to further understand the function of these genes, we conducted Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway, protein-protein interaction network, survival prognosis analysis and immune infiltration analysis. Finally, the effects on prognosis and immunotherapy in OC patients were explored by the Group on Earth Observations verification the patients' responses to immunotherapy. Results: We found that the higher the TMB was associated with the higher OC grades. Moreover, both high TMB and high immunity were significantly correlated with a good prognosis of OC. Then, 14 up-regulated differential expression genes (Up-DEGs) that were closely related to the prognosis of OC patients were screened according to the high TMB group and the high immunity group. Next, pathway analysis revealed that Up-DGEs were mainly involved in immune response and T cell proliferation. Finally, four genes had a good prognosis and were validated in the GEO dataset which included CXCL13, FCRLA, PLA2G2D, and MS4A1. We also identified that four genes had a good prognosis in melanoma patients treated with anti-PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 in the TIDE database. Conclusion: High TMB can promote immune cell infiltration and increases immune activity. And our analysis also demonstrated that the higher the TMB, the higher the immune activity, the better the prognosis of OC. Altogether, we found that CXCL13, FCRLA, PLA2G2D, and MS4A1 may be biomarkers for OC immunotherapy. Keywords: ovarian cancer, TMB, immune cells infiltration, survival prognosis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Gao ◽  
Sheng Yin ◽  
Haiyan Sun ◽  
Zhuyan Shao ◽  
Peipei Shi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) plays a vital role in tumor progression of some cancer types, but little is known whether it is a bystander or an actual player on driving immune infiltration in ovarian cancer.Methods: In this study, the expression of SPP1 was identified by Oncomine, GEPIA and TIMER databases, and SPP1 immumohistochemical staining analysis was assessed by The HPA database. The clinical outcomes between SPP1 expression and ovarian cancer patients were evaluated via Kaplan-Meier Plotter and PrognoScan dataset. Immune infiltration analyses were explored using TIMER and TISIDB dataset. In addition, Functional enrichment analyses were performed with Metascape and GeneMANIA database.Results: SPP1 was found overexpressed in ovarian tumor tissues and high SPP1 expression was correlated with shorter OS and PFS survivals. Particularly, elevated SPP1 expression was significantly associated with stage III ovarian cancer. Notably, SPP1 expression was positively correlated with infiltrating levels of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells. Furthermore, SPP1 expression showed strong correlations with diverse immune hallmark sets in ovarian cancer. Of particular importance, functional enrichment analysis suggested that SPP1 strong related with immune response.Conclusions: These findings imply that SPP1 is correlated with prognosis and immune cell infiltrating, offering a new potential immunotherapeutic target in ovarian cancer.Trial registration: Not applicable.


Author(s):  
Xibo Zhao ◽  
Shanshan Cong ◽  
Qiuyan Guo ◽  
Yan Cheng ◽  
Tian Liang ◽  
...  

With the highest case-fatality rate among women, the molecular pathological alterations of ovarian cancer (OV) are complex, depending on the diversity of genomic alterations. Increasing evidence supports that immune infiltration in tumors is associated with prognosis. Therefore, we aim to assess infiltration in OV using multiple methods to capture genomic signatures regulating immune events to identify reliable predictions of different outcomes. A dataset of 309 ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma patients with overall survival &gt;90 days from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was analyzed. Multiple estimations and clustering methods identified and verified two immune clusters with component differences. Functional analyses pointed out immune-related alterations underlying internal genomic variables potentially. After extracting immune genes from a public database, the LASSO Cox regression model with 10-fold cross-validation was used for selecting genes associated with overall survival rate significantly, and a risk score model was then constructed. Kaplan–Meier survival and Cox regression analyses among cohorts were performed systematically to evaluate prognostic efficiency among the risk score model and other clinical pathological parameters, establishing a predictive ability independently. Furthermore, this risk score model was compared among identified signatures in previous studies and applied to two external cohorts, showing better prediction performance and generalization ability, and also validated as robust in association with immune cell infiltration in bulk tissues. Besides, a transcription factor regulation network suggested upper regulatory mechanisms in OV. Our immune risk score model may provide gyneco-oncologists with predictive values for the prognosis and treatment management of patients with OV.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Zhao ◽  
Jiayue Zhang ◽  
Zhiyuan Liu ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Shurui Xuan ◽  
...  

Alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNA has been widely reported to be associated with the progression of malignant tumors. However, a systematic investigation into the prognostic value of AS events in glioblastoma (GBM) is urgently required. The gene expression profile and matched AS events data of GBM patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA) and TCGA SpliceSeq database, respectively. 775 AS events were identified as prognostic factors using univariate Cox regression analysis. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) cox model was performed to narrow down candidate AS events, and a risk score model based on several AS events were developed subsequently. The risk score-based signature was proved as an efficient predictor of overall survival and was closely related to the tumor purity and immunosuppression in GBM. Combined similarity network fusion and consensus clustering (SNF-CC) analysis revealed two distinct GBM subtypes based on the prognostic AS events, and the associations between this novel molecular classification and clinicopathological factors, immune cell infiltration, as well as immunogenic features were further explored. We also constructed a regulatory network to depict the potential mechanisms that how prognostic splicing factors (SFs) regulate splicing patterns in GBM. Finally, a nomogram incorporating AS events signature and other clinical-relevant covariates was built for clinical application. This comprehensive analysis highlights the potential implications for predicting prognosis and clinical management in GBM.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaidi Zhao ◽  
Zhou Ma ◽  
Wei Zhang

Background:SPP1, secreted phosphoprotein 1, is a member of the small integrin-binding ligand N-linked glycoprotein (SIBLING) family. Previous studies have proven SPP1 overexpressed in a variety of cancers and can be identified as a prognostic factor, while no study has explored the function and carcinogenic mechanism of SPP1 in cervical cancer.Methods: We aimed to demonstrate the relationship between SPP1 expression and pan-cancer using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Next, we validated SPP1 expression of cervical cancer in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, including GSE7803, GSE63514, and GSE9750. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the feasibility of SPP1 as a differentiating factor by the area under curve (AUC) score. Cox regression and logistic regression were performed to evaluate factors associated with prognosis. The SPP1-binding protein network was built by the STRING tool. Enrichment analysis by the R package clusterProfiler was used to explore potential function of SPP1. The single-sample GSEA (ssGSEA) method from the R package GSVA and TIMER database were used to investigate the association between the immune infiltration level and SPP1 expression in cervical cancer.Results: Pan-cancer data analysis showed that SPP1 expression was higher in most cancer types, including cervical cancer, and we got the same result in the GEO database. The ROC curve suggested that SPP1 could be a potential diagnostic biomarker (AUC = 0.877). High SPP1 expression was associated with poorer overall survival (OS) (P = 0.032). Further enrichment and immune infiltration analysis revealed that high SPP1 expression was correlated with regulating the infiltration level of neutrophil cells and some immune cell types, including macrophage and DC.Conclusion:SPP1 expression was higher in cervical cancer tissues than in normal cervical epithelial tissues. It was significantly associated with poor prognosis and immune cell infiltration. Thus, SPP1 may become a promising prognostic biomarker for cervical cancer patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sihui Yu ◽  
Xi Li ◽  
Jiawen Zhang ◽  
Sufang Wu

Predictive models could indicate the clinical outcome of patients with carcinoma. Cervical cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed female malignancies. Herein, we proposed an immune infiltration-related gene signature that predicts prognosis of patients with cervical cancer and depicts the immune landscape as well. We utilized the transcriptome data of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and estimated the infiltration level of 28 immune cell types. We screened out four immune cell types conducive to patient survival and recognized their shared differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Four core genes (CHIT1, GTSF1L, PLA2G2D, and GNG8) that composed the ultimate signature were identified via univariate and multivariate Cox regression. The optimal model we built up could distinguish patients with cervical cancer into high-score and low-score subgroups. These two subgroups showed disparity in aspects of patient survival, immune infiltration landscape, and response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Additionally, we found that GTSF1L was decreased gradually along with the severity of cervical lesions, and its potential role in immune contexture and clinical practice were also demonstrated. Our results suggested that the Immunoscore based on four immune-related genes could serve as a supplementary criterion to effectively foresee the survival outcome, tumor infiltration status, and immunotherapy efficacy of cervical cancer patients.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Gao ◽  
Fu Li ◽  
Jiao Cai ◽  
Jia Liu ◽  
Xi Zhang ◽  
...  

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly heterogeneous hematological malignancy. The bone marrow (BM) microenvironment in AML plays an important role in leukemogenesis, drug resistance and leukemia relapse. In this study, we aimed to identify reliable immune-related biomarkers for AML prognosis by multiomics analysis. We obtained expression profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and constructed a LASSO-Cox regression model to predict the prognosis of AML using multiomics bioinformatic analysis data. This was followed by independent validation of the model in the GSE106291 (n=251), GSE12417 (n=163) and GSE37642 (n=137) datasets and mutated genes in clinical samples for predicting overall survival (OS). Molecular docking was performed to predict the most optimal ligands to these hub genes. The single-cell RNA sequence dataset GSE116256 was used to clarify the expression of the hub genes in different immune cell types. According to their significant differences in immune gene signatures and survival trends, we concluded that the immune infiltration-lacking subtype (IL type) is associated with better prognosis than the immune infiltration-rich subtype (IR type). Using the LASSO model, we built a classifier based on 5 hub genes to predict the prognosis of AML (risk score = -0.086×ADAMTS3 + 0.180×CD52 + 0.472×CLCN5 - 0.356×HAL + 0.368×ICAM3). In summary, we constructed a prognostic model of AML using integrated multiomics bioinformatic analysis that could serve as a therapeutic classifier.


PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e10255
Author(s):  
Jingshu Wang ◽  
Tingting Zhang ◽  
Lina Yang ◽  
Gong Yang

Background Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in women. The incidence of ovarian cancer is insidious, and the recurrence rate is high. The survival rate of ovarian cancer has not significantly improved over the past decade. Recently, immune checkpoint inhibitors such as those targeting CTLA-4, PD-1, or PD-L1 have been used to treat ovarian cancer. Therefore, a full analysis of the immune biomarkers associated with this malignancy is necessary. Methods In this study, we used data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to analyze the infiltration patterns of specific immune cell types in tumor samples. Data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was used for external validation. According to the invasion patterns of immune cells, we divided the ovarian cancer microenvironment into two clusters: A and B. These tumor microenvironment (TME) subtypes were associated with genomic and clinicopathological characteristics. Subsequently, a random forest classification model was established. Differential genomic features, functional enrichment, and DNA methylation were analyzed between the two clusters. The characteristics of immune cell infiltration and the expression of immune-related cytokines or markers were analyzed. Somatic mutation analysis was also performed between clusters A and B. Finally, multivariate Cox analysis was used to analyze independent prognostic factors. Results The ovarian cancer TME cluster A was characterized by less infiltration of immune cells and sparse distribution and low expression of immunomodulators. In contrast, cytotoxic T cells and immunosuppressive cells were significantly increased in the ovarian cancer TME cluster B. Additionally, immune-related cytokines or markers, including IFN-γ and TNF-β, were also expressed in large quantities. In total, 35 differentially methylated and expressed genes (DMEGs) were identified. Functional enrichment analyses revealed that the DMEGs in cluster B participated in important biological processes and immune-related pathways. The mutation load in cluster B was insignificantly higher than that of cluster A (p = 0.076). Multivariate Cox analysis showed that TME was an independent prognostic factor for ovarian cancer (hazard ratio: 1.33, 95% confidence interval: 1.01–1.75, p = 0.041). Conclusion This study described and classified basic information about the immune invasion pattern of ovarian cancer and integrated biomarkers related to different immunophenotypes to reveal interactions between ovarian cancer and the immune system.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document