scholarly journals Hypoxia-Related Immune Gene Signature Predicting Prognosis in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Author(s):  
Lingshan Zhou ◽  
Yuan Yang ◽  
Min Liu ◽  
Rong Liu ◽  
Man Ren ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a global health challenge. Increasing evidence indicates that hypoxia is crucial in the evolution and progression of HCC by regulating the tumor immune microenvironment. The present study aimed to construct a prognostic relevant hypoxia-related immune gene (HRIG) signature. MethodsWe analyzed the expression profile of the 163 HRIGs and clinical information of 371 patients with HCC obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Then, consensus clustering analysis was performed to divide HCC patients into clusters 1 and 2 based on the HRIG expression. Subsequently, A multigene signature was constructed by Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analyses. Then, we evaluated the prognostic capability of this signature by Kaplan-Meier analysis, univariate Cox regression and multivariate Cox regression. The prognostic value of the signature was validated in the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. Furthermore, the functional enrichment analyses were preformed to elucidate their biological significance. Finally, we evaluated the infiltration of immune cells and the sensitivity of administrating chemotherapeutic agents.ResultsA total of 37 prognosis-related HRIGs were obtained. Subsequently, we constructed an 8-gene signature on the basis of prognosis-related HRIGs, which had a good performance in predicting the overall survival of patients with HCC. In addition, the signature expressed robust when validated in ICGC. The results revealed that these genes involved in some of the HCC-related pathways and was associated with the infiltration of immune cell subtypes. More importantly, the identified model was linked to the sensitivity of some chemotherapeutic agents. ConclusionsHRIG signature is an effective predictor for the prognosis of patients with HCC.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cankun Zhou ◽  
Chaomei Li ◽  
Fangli Yan ◽  
Yuhua Zheng

Abstract Background: Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is a frequent gynecological malignancy with a poor prognosis especially when at an advanced stage. In the present study, we explored the potential of an immune-related gene signature to predict overall survival in UCEC patients.Methods: We analyzed expression data of 616 UCEC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and the International Cancer Genome Consortium as well as immune genes from the ImmPort database and identified the signature. We constructed a transcription factor regulatory network based on Cistrome databases and performed functional enrichment and pathway analyses for the differentially expressed immune genes. Moreover, the prognostic value of 410 immune genes was determined using Cox regression analysis then constructed a prognostic model. Finally, we performed immune infiltration analysis using TIMER-generating immune cell content.Results: Results indicated that the immune cell microenvironment as well as the PI3K-Akt, and MARK signaling pathways were involved in UCEC development. The established prognostic model revealed a ten-gene prognosis signature , comprising PDIA3, LTA, PSMC4, TNF, SBDS, HDGF, HTR3E, NR3C1, PGR, and CBLC . This can be used as an independent tool to predict the prognosis of UCEC owing to the observed risk-score. In addition, levels of B cells and neutrophils were significantly correlated with the patient's risk score, and the expression of ten genes is associated with immune cell infiltrates.Conclusions: In summary, we present a 10-gene signature with the potential to predict the prognosis of UCEC. This is expected to guide future development of individualized treatment approaches.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cankun Zhou ◽  
Chaomei Li ◽  
Fangli Yan ◽  
Yuhua Zheng

Abstract Background Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is a frequent gynecological malignancy with a poor prognosis particularly at an advanced stage. Herein, this study aims to construct prognostic markers of UCEC based on immune-related genes to predict the prognosis of UCEC. Methods We analyzed expression data of 575 UCEC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and immune genes from the ImmPort database, which were used for generation and validation of the signature. We constructed a transcription factor regulatory network based on Cistrome databases, and also performed functional enrichment and pathway analyses for the differentially expressed immune genes. Moreover, the prognostic value of 410 immune genes was determined using the Cox regression analysis. We then constructed and verified a prognostic signature. Finally, we performed immune infiltration analysis using TIMER-generating immune cell content. Results The immune cell microenvironment as well as the PI3K-Akt, and MARK signaling pathways were involved in UCEC development. The established prognostic signature revealed a ten-gene prognostic signature, comprising of PDIA3, LTA, PSMC4, TNF, SBDS, HDGF, HTR3E, NR3C1, PGR, and CBLC. This signature showed a strong prognostic ability in both the training and testing sets and thus can be used as an independent tool to predict the prognosis of UCEC. In addition, levels of B cells and neutrophils were significantly correlated with the patient’s risk score, while the expression of ten genes was associated with immune cell infiltrates. Conclusions In summary, the ten-gene prognostic signature may guide the selection of the immunotherapy for UCEC.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cankun Zhou ◽  
Chaomei Li ◽  
Fangli Yan ◽  
Yuhua Zheng

Abstract Background: Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is a frequent gynecological malignancy with a poor prognosis particularly at an advanced stage. Herein, this study aims to construct prognostic markers of UCEC based on immune-related genes to predict the prognosis of UCEC.Methods: We analyzed expression data of 575 UCEC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and immune genes from the ImmPort database, which were used for generation and validation of the signature. We constructed a transcription factor regulatory network based on Cistrome databases, and also performed functional enrichment and pathway analyses for the differentially expressed immune genes. Moreover, the prognostic value of 410 immune genes was determined using the Cox regression analysis. We then constructed and verified a prognostic signature. Finally, we performed immune infiltration analysis using TIMER-generating immune cell content.Results: The immune cell microenvironment as well as the PI3K-Akt, and MARK signaling pathways were involved in UCEC development. The established prognostic signature revealed a ten-gene prognostic signature, comprising of PDIA3, LTA, PSMC4, TNF, SBDS, HDGF, HTR3E, NR3C1, PGR, and CBLC. This signature showed a strong prognostic ability in both the training and testing sets and thus can be used as an independent tool to predict the prognosis of UCEC. In addition, levels of B cells and neutrophils were significantly correlated with the patient's risk score, while the expression of ten genes was associated with immune cell infiltrates.Conclusions: In summary, the ten-gene prognostic signature may guide the selection of the immunotherapy for UCEC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuomao Mo ◽  
Daiyuan Liu ◽  
Dade Rong ◽  
Shijun Zhang

Background: Generally, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exists in an immunosuppressive microenvironment that promotes tumor evasion. Hypoxia can impact intercellular crosstalk in the tumor microenvironment. This study aimed to explore and elucidate the underlying relationship between hypoxia and immunotherapy in patients with HCC.Methods: HCC genomic and clinicopathological datasets were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-LIHC), Gene Expression Omnibus databases (GSE14520) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC-LIRI). The TCGA-LIHC cases were divided into clusters based on single sample gene set enrichment analysis and hierarchical clustering. After identifying patients with immunosuppressive microenvironment with different hypoxic conditions, correlations between immunological characteristics and hypoxia clusters were investigated. Subsequently, a hypoxia-associated score was established by differential expression, univariable Cox regression, and lasso regression analyses. The score was verified by survival and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. The GSE14520 cohort was used to validate the findings of immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoints expression, while the ICGC-LIRI cohort was employed to verify the hypoxia-associated score.Results: We identified hypoxic patients with immunosuppressive HCC. This cluster exhibited higher immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint expression in the TCGA cohort, while similar significant differences were observed in the GEO cohort. The hypoxia-associated score was composed of five genes (ephrin A3, dihydropyrimidinase like 4, solute carrier family 2 member 5, stanniocalcin 2, and lysyl oxidase). In both two cohorts, survival analysis revealed significant differences between the high-risk and low-risk groups. In addition, compared to other clinical parameters, the established score had the highest predictive performance at both 3 and 5 years in two cohorts.Conclusion: This study provides further evidence of the link between hypoxic signals in patients and immunosuppression in HCC. Defining hypoxia-associated HCC subtypes may help reveal potential regulatory mechanisms between hypoxia and the immunosuppressive microenvironment, and our hypoxia-associated score could exhibit potential implications for future predictive models.


Author(s):  
Jindong Xie ◽  
Yutian Zou ◽  
Feng Ye ◽  
Wanzhen Zhao ◽  
Xinhua Xie ◽  
...  

Regarded as the most invasive subtype, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks the expression of estrogen receptors (ERs), progesterone receptors (PRs), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) proteins. Platelets have recently been shown to be associated with metastasis of malignant tumors. Nevertheless, the status of platelet-related genes in TNBC and their correlation with patient prognosis remain unknown. In this study, the expression and variation levels of platelet-related genes were identified and patients with TNBC were divided into three subtypes. We collected cohorts from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. By applying the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression method, we constructed a seven-gene signature which classified the two cohorts of patients with TNBC into low- or high-risk groups. Patients in the high-risk group were more likely to have lower survival rates than those in the low-risk group. The risk score, incorporated with the clinical features, was confirmed as an independent factor for predicting the overall survival (OS) time. Functional enrichment analyses revealed the involvement of a variety of vital biological processes and classical cancer-related pathways that could be important to the ultimate prognosis of TNBC. We then built a nomogram that performed well. Moreover, we tested the model in other cohorts and obtained positive outcomes. In conclusion, platelet-related genes were closely related to TNBC, and this novel signature could serve as a tool for the assessment of clinical prognosis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shujie Wang ◽  
zhenchong li ◽  
chunsheng liu ◽  
qi zhou ◽  
zuyi ma ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundPancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is a highly malignant cancer with a poor prognosis. The tumor microenvironment (TME) is closely related to tumorigenesis, progression, and treatment. However, the relationship between TME immune cell genes and prognosis in PAAD is currently unclear.Methodsn this study, we identified three prognostic subtypes based on the TME by using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database and University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) database. The Silhouette plot analysis was used to evaluate 758 immune genes expression in PAAD from each database, then to divide all samples into three subtypes (Clusters A, B, C) by Lasso’s binomial logistic regression. We analyzed the relationship between subtypes and prognosis by the survival R package. CIBERSORT was used for evaluating the expression changes of immune cells. We detect the copy number variation areas between two groups through GISTIC 2.0 algorithm. The TIDE network tool was used to predict the response of immune therapy.ResultsWe defined three clusters (Clusters A, B, and C) based on the analysis of immune gene expression. Cluster B got a worse prognosis than the other two clusters. The Cluster B group had the highest level of Macrophages M0 and Macrophage M2. NK cell resting was much higher in Cluster B than other groups in TME. Gene KRAS was mutated in 77% of all samples. Cluster C had a better immune therapy effect than others.ConclusionsWe found a news model to predicted patients’ prognosis who with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Cluster B had the significant worse prognosis than other groups. Patients in Cluster C could get batter treatment effect by using immunotherapy.


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.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinxin Xia ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
Yuejun Li

Abstract Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality. The immune system plays vital roles in HCC initiation and progression. The present study aimed to construct an immune-gene related prognostic signature (IRPS) for predicting the prognosis of HCC patients. Methods: Gene expression data were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Univariate Cox regression analysis was carried out to identify differentially expressed genes that associated with overall survival. The IRPS was established via Lasso and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Both Cox regression analyses were conducted to determine the independent prognostic factors for HCC. Next, the association between the IRPS and clinical-related factors were evaluated. The prognostic values of the IRPS were further validated using the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) dataset. Gene set enrichment analyses (GSEA) were conducted to understand the biological mechanisms of the IRPS. Results: A total of 62 genes were identified to be candidate immune-related prognostic genes. Transcription factors-immunogenes network was generated to explore the interactions among these candidate genes. According to the results of Lasso and multivariate Cox regression analysis, we established an IRPS and confirmed its stability and reliability in ICGC dataset. The IRPS was significantly associated with advanced clinicopathological characteristics. Both Cox regression analyses revealed that the IRPS could be an independent risk factor influencing the prognosis of HCC patients. The relationships between the IRPS and infiltration immune cells demonstrated that the IRPS was associated with immune cell infiltration. GSEA identified significantly enriched pathways, which might assist in elucidating the biological mechanisms of the IRPS. Furthermore, a nomogram was constructed to estimate the survival probability of HCC patients.Conclusions: The IRPS was effective for predicting prognosis of HCC patients, which might serve as novel prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers for HCC.


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.


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.


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