scholarly journals An Immune-Related Gene Signature for Predicting Survival and Immunotherapy Efficacy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifei Dai ◽  
Weijie Qiang ◽  
Kequan Lin ◽  
Yu Gui ◽  
Xun Lan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks the fourth in terms of cancer-related mortality globally. Herein, in this research, we attempted to develop a novel immune-related gene signature that could predict survival and efficacy of immunotherapy for HCC patients.Methods: The transcriptomic and clinical data of HCC samples were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and GSE14520 datasets, followed by acquisition of immune-related genes from the ImmPort database. Afterwards, an immune-related gene-based prognostic index (IRGPI) was constructed using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression model. Kaplan-Meier survival curves as well as time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were performed to evaluate its predictive capability. Besides, both univariate and multivariate analysis on overall survival for the IRGPI and multiple clinicopathologic factors were carried out, followed by the construction of nomogram. Finally, we explored the possible correlation of IRGPI with immune cell infiltration or immunotherapy efficacy. Results: Analysis of 365 HCC samples identified 11 differentially expressed genes, which were selected to establish the IRGPI. Notably, it can predict survival of HCC patients more accurately than published biomarkers. Furthermore, IRGPI can predict the infiltration of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment of HCC, as well as the response of immunotherapy.Conclusion: Collectively, the currently established IRGPI can accurately predict survival, reflect the immune microenvironment, and predict the efficacy of immunotherapy among HCC patients.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Li ◽  
Jiahong Wang ◽  
Xianquan Zhan

Accumulating evidence indicates that immunotherapy helped to improve the survival and quality-of-life of patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) or lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) besides chemotherapy and gene targeting treatment. This study aimed to develop immune-related gene signatures in LUAD and LUSC subtypes, respectively. LUAD and LUSC samples were divided into high- and low-abundance groups of immune cell infiltration (Immunity_H and Immunity_L) based on the abundance of immune cell infiltrations. The distribution of immune cells was significantly different between the high- and low-immunity subtypes in LUAD and LUSC samples. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between those two groups in LUAD and LUSC contain some key immune-related genes, such as PDL1, PD1, CTLA-4, and HLA families. The DEGs were enriched in multiple immune-related pathways. Furthermore, the seven-immune-related-gene-signature (CD1B, CHRNA6, CLEC12B, CLEC17A, CLNK, INHA, and SLC14A2) prognostic model-based high- and low-risk groups were significantly associated with LUAD overall survival and clinical characteristics. The eight-immune-related-gene-signature (C4BPB, FCAMR, GRAPL, MAP1LC3C, MGC2889, TRIM55, UGT1A1, and VIPR2) prognostic model-based high- and low-risk groups were significantly associated with LUSC overall survival and clinical characteristics. The prognostic models were tested as good ones by receiver operating characteristic, principal component analysis, univariate and multivariate analysis, and nomogram. The verifications of these two immune-related-gene-signature prognostic models showed consistency in the train and test cohorts of LUAD and LUSC. In addition, patients with LUAD in the low-risk group responded better to immunotherapy than those in the high-risk group. This study revealed two reliable immune-related-gene-signature models that were significantly associated with prognosis and tumor microenvironment cell infiltration in LUAD and LUSC, respectively. Evaluation of the integrated characterization of multiple immune-related genes and pathways could help to predict the response to immunotherapy and monitor immunotherapy strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Li ◽  
Biao Li ◽  
Xianquan Zhan

BackgroundAccumulating evidence demonstrated that tumor microenvironmental cells played important roles in predicting clinical outcomes and therapeutic efficacy. We aimed to develop a reliable immune-related gene signature for predicting the prognosis of ovarian cancer (OC).MethodsSingle sample gene-set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) of immune gene-sets was used to quantify the relative abundance of immune cell infiltration and develop high- and low-abundance immune subtypes of 308 OC samples. The presence of infiltrating stromal/immune cells in OC tissues was calculated as an estimate score. We estimated the correlation coefficients among the immune subtype, clinicopathological feature, immune score, distribution of immune cells, and tumor mutation burden (TMB). The differentially expressed immune-related genes between high- and low-abundance immune subtypes were further used to construct a gene signature of a prognostic model in OC with lasso regression analysis.ResultsThe ssGSEA analysis divided OC samples into high- and low-abundance immune subtypes based on the abundance of immune cell infiltration, which was significantly related to the estimate score and clinical characteristics. The distribution of immune cells was also significantly different between high- and low-abundance immune subtypes. The correlation analysis showed the close relationship between TMB and the estimate score. The differentially expressed immune-related genes between high- and low-abundance immune subtypes were enriched in multiple immune-related pathways. Some immune checkpoints (PDL1, PD1, and CTLA-4) were overexpressed in the high-abundance immune subtype. Furthermore, the five-immune-related-gene-signature prognostic model (CCL18, CXCL13, HLA-DOB, HLA-DPB2, and TNFRSF17)-based high-risk and low-risk groups were significantly related to OC overall survival.ConclusionImmune-related genes were the promising predictors of prognosis and survival, and the comprehensive landscape of tumor microenvironmental cells of OC has potential for therapeutic schedule monitoring.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Xiao ◽  
Liyan Liu ◽  
Aoyu Li ◽  
Cheng Xiang ◽  
Pingxiao Wang ◽  
...  

Osteosarcoma is the most common malignant bone tumor in children and adolescence. Multiple immune-related genes have been reported in different cancers. The aim is to identify an immune-related gene signature for the prospective evaluation of prognosis for osteosarcoma patients. In this study, we evaluated the infiltration of immune cells in 101 osteosarcoma patients downloaded from TARGET using the ssGSEA to the RNA-sequencing of these patients, thus, high immune cell infiltration cluster, middle immune cell infiltration cluster and low immune cell infiltration cluster were generated. On the foundation of high immune cell infiltration cluster vs. low immune cell infiltration cluster and normal vs. osteosarcoma, we found 108 common differentially expressed genes which were sequentially submitted to univariate Cox and LASSO regression analysis. Furthermore, GSEA indicated some pathways with notable enrichment in the high- and low-immune cell infiltration cluster that may be helpful in understanding the potential mechanisms. Finally, we identified seven immune-related genes as prognostic signature for osteosarcoma. Kaplan-Meier analysis, ROC curve, univariate and multivariate Cox regression further confirmed that the seven immune-related genes signature was an innovative and significant prognostic factor independent of clinical features. These results of this study offer a means to predict the prognosis and survival of osteosarcoma patients with uncovered seven-gene signature as potential biomarkers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Jin ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Lina Ge ◽  
Qing Hu

Objective: Sciatica pertains to neuropathic pain that has been associated with inflammatory response. We aimed to identify significant immune-related biomarkers for sciatica in peripheral blood.Methods: We utilized the GSE150408 expression profiling data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database as the training dataset and extracted immune-related genes for further analysis. Differentially expressed immune-related genes (DEIRGs) between healthy controls and patients with sciatica were selected using the “limma” package and verified in clinical specimens by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). A diagnostic immune-related gene signature was established using the training model and random forest (RF), generalized linear model (GLM), and support vector machine (SVM) models. Sciatica patient subtypes were identified using the consensus clustering method.Results: Thirteen significant DEIRGs were acquired, of which five (CRP, EREG, FAM19A4, RLN1, and WFIKKN1) were selected to establish a diagnostic immune-related gene signature according to the most appropriate training model, namely, the RF model. A clinical application nomogram model was established based on the expression level of the five DEIRGs. The sciatica patients were divided into two subtypes (C1 and C2) according to the consensus clustering method.Conclusions: Our research established a diagnostic five immune-related gene signature to discriminate sciatica and identified two sciatica subtypes, which may be beneficial to the clinical diagnosis and treatment of sciatica.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 107327482097711
Author(s):  
Jiasheng Lei ◽  
Dengyong Zhang ◽  
Chao Yao ◽  
Sheng Ding ◽  
Zheng Lu

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains the third leader cancer-associated cause of death globally, but the etiological basis for this complex disease remains poorly clarified. The present study was thus conceptualized to define a prognostic immune-related gene (IRG) signature capable of predicting immunotherapy responsiveness and overall survival (OS) in patients with HCC. Methods: Five differentially expressed IRG associated with HCC were established the immune-related risk model through univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analyses. Patients were separated at random into training and testing cohorts, after which the association between the identified IRG signature and OS was evaluated using the “survival” R package. In addition, maftools was leveraged to assess mutational data, with tumor mutation burden (TMB) scores being calculated as follows: (total mutations/total bases) × 106. Immune-related risk term abundance was quantified via “ssGSEA” algorithm using the “gsva” R package. Results: HCC patients were successfully stratified into low-risk and high-risk groups based upon a signature composed of 5 differentially expressed IRGs, with overall survival being significantly different between these 2 groups in training cohort, testing cohort and overall patient cohort ( P = 1.745e-06, P = 1.888e-02, P = 4.281e-07). No association was observed between TMB and this IRG risk score in the overall patient cohort ( P = 0.461). Notably, 19 out of 29 immune-related risk terms differed substantially in the overall patient dataset. These risk terms mainly included checkpoints, human leukocyte antigens, natural killer cells, dendritic cells, and major histocompatibility complex class I. Conclusion: In summary, an immune-related prognostic gene signature was successfully developed and used to predict survival outcomes and immune system status in patients with HCC. This signature has the potential to help guide immunotherapeutic treatment planning for patients affected by this deadly cancer.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianwei Sun ◽  
Qixing Tan ◽  
Changyuan Wei

Abstract Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the cancer with the largest number of deaths in women. There is growing evidence that immunity plays an important role in the prognosis of breast cancer. Methods: In this study, we developed and validated an immune-related gene pair signature (IRGPs) to predict the survival of breast cancer patients. Screening immune-related genes from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database for the construction of IRGPs, and patients with breast cancer in these two cohorts were assigned to low- and high- risk subgroups. Additionally, we used Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox analysis to investigate IRGPs and their individualized prognostic characteristics, and analysis of immune cell infiltration in breast cancer. Results: A 47-IRGP signature was constructed from 2498 immune genes, which could significantly predict the overall survival (OS) of breast cancer patients in the TCGA and GEO cohorts. Immune infiltration analysis showed that a variety of immune cells are significantly related to the prognostic effects of IRGP characteristics in breast cancer patients, especially CD8+ T cells and macrophages. Conclusions: The IRGP signature constructed in this study can help determine the prognosis of breast cancer and provide new ideas and basis for future research on the role of immune-related genes in breast cancer patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianlei Bi ◽  
Fangfang Bi ◽  
Xue Pan ◽  
Qing Yang

Abstract Background Glycolysis affects tumor growth, invasion, chemotherapy resistance, and the tumor microenvironment. In this study, we aimed to construct a glycolysis-related prognostic model for ovarian cancer and analyze its relationship with the tumor microenvironment’s immune cell infiltration. Methods We obtained six glycolysis-related gene sets for gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Ovarian cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and two Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets were divided into two groups after removing batch effects. We compared the tumor environments' immune components in high-risk and low-risk groups and analyzed the correlation between glycolysis- and immune-related genes. Then, we generated and validated a predictive model for the prognosis of ovarian cancer using the glycolysis-related genes. Results Overall, 27/329 glycolytic genes were associated with survival in ovarian cancer, 8 of which showed predictive value. The tumor cell components in the tumor microenvironment did not differ between the high-risk and low-risk groups; however, the immune score differed significantly between groups. In total, 13/24 immune cell types differed between groups, including 10 T cell types and three other immune cell types. Eight glycolysis-related prognostic genes were related to the expression of multiple immune-related genes at varying degrees, suggesting a relationship between glycolysis and immune response. Conclusions We identified eight glycolysis-related prognostic genes that effectively predicted survival in ovarian cancer. To a certain extent, the newly identified gene signature was related to the tumor microenvironment, especially immune cell infiltration and immune-related gene expression. These findings provide potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for ovarian cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enfa Zhao ◽  
Shimin Chen ◽  
Ying Dang

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a novel immune checkpoint–related gene signature for prediction of overall survival (OS) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods: mRNA expression profiles and clinical follow-up information were obtained in the International Cancer Genome Consortium database. An external dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma database was used to validate the results. The univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed based on the differentially expressed genes. We generated a four-mRNA signature to predict patient survival. Furthermore, the reliability and validity were validated in TCGA cohort. An integrated bioinformatics approach was performed to evaluate its diagnostic and prognostic value.Results: A four-gene (epidermal growth factor, mutated in colorectal cancer, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 2, and NRAS proto-oncogene, GTPase) signature was built to classify patients into two risk groups using a risk score with different OS in two cohorts (all P < 0.0001). Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated the signature was an independent predictor of HCC. Furthermore, the signature presented an excellent diagnostic power in differentiating HCC and adjacent tissues. Immune cell infiltration analysis revealed that the signature was associated with a number of immune cell subtypes.Conclusion: We identified a four–immune checkpoint–related gene signature as a robust biomarker with great potential for clinical application in risk stratification and OS prediction in HCC patients and could be a potential indicator of immunotherapy in HCC. The diagnostic signature had been validated to accurately distinguish HCC from adjacent tissues.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pu Zhang ◽  
Zijian Liu ◽  
Decai Wang ◽  
Yunxue Li ◽  
Yifei Xing ◽  
...  

IntroductionIt’s widely reported the “writer” enzymes mediated RNA adenosine modifications which is known as a crucial mechanism of epigenetic regulation in development of tumor and the immunologic response in many kinds of cancers. However, the potential roles of these writer genes in the progression of bladder cancer (BLCA) remain unclear.Materials and MethodsWe comprehensively described the alterations of 26 RNA modification writer genes in BLCA from the genetic and transcriptional fields and identified writer-related genes from four independent datasets. Utilizing least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and multivariate Cox regression, we constructed a ten writer-related gene signature. After that, we confirmed the predictive and prognostic value of this signature on another six independent datasets and established a nomogram to forecast the overall survival (OS) and mortality odds of BLCA patients clinically.ResultsThe writer-related genes signature showed good performance in predicting the OS for BLCA patients. Moreover, the writer-related gene signature was related to EMT-related pathways and immune characteristics. Furthermore, the immune cell infiltration levels of CD8 T cells, cytotoxic cells, M1/2 macrophage cells and tumor mutation burden might be able to predict which patients will benefit from immunotherapy. This could also be reflected by the writer-related gene signature.ConclusionsThis signature might play an important role in precision individualized immunotherapy. The present work highlights the crucial clinical implications of RNA modifications and may help developing individualized therapeutic strategies for patients with BLCA.


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