Identification of an E2F Target‐Related Gene Signature to Improve the Prognosis Prediction for Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Author(s):  
Jing Bian ◽  
Xi Chen ◽  
Mingyan Jiang ◽  
Xinghua Gao

Abstract Liver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, of which hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common histological subtype. Although thousands of biomarkers related to HCC survival and prognosis have been found through database mining, the predictive effects of single-gene biomarkers are not specific enough. Therefore, we aimed to construct a pathway-related signature that could effectively forecast HCC prognosis. We obtained gene expression data and clinical patient information from The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify genes enriched in the E2F target gene pathway by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. In the training set, NBN, PHF5A, CDCA8, AK2, and EXOSC8 were significantly associated with overall survival. They were validated in the test and entire groups, confirmed by Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and compared with two known prognostic signatures for HCC. Overall, we demonstrated a novel five-mRNA prognostic signature based on E2F targets that successfully predicted the survival of HCC patients, is independent of clinicopathological data, and displayed superior prediction performance in HCC prognosis. Our study elucidates the cell cycle mechanism in identifying patients with poor HCC prognosis. The application of our five-mRNA prognostic signature may improve risk stratification in HCC patients and existing methods for survival prediction.

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Deng ◽  
Qinghua Bi ◽  
Shihan Chen ◽  
Xianhua Chen ◽  
Shuhui Li ◽  
...  

Although great progresses have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), its prognostic marker remains controversial. In this current study, weighted correlation network analysis and Cox regression analysis showed significant prognostic value of five autophagy-related long non-coding RNAs (AR-lncRNAs) (including TMCC1-AS1, PLBD1-AS1, MKLN1-AS, LINC01063, and CYTOR) for HCC patients from data in The Cancer Genome Atlas. By using them, we constructed a five-AR-lncRNA prognostic signature, which accurately distinguished the high- and low-risk groups of HCC patients. All of the five AR lncRNAs were highly expressed in the high-risk group of HCC patients. This five-AR-lncRNA prognostic signature showed good area under the curve (AUC) value (AUC = 0.751) for the overall survival (OS) prediction in either all HCC patients or HCC patients stratified according to several clinical traits. A prognostic nomogram with this five-AR-lncRNA signature predicted the 3- and 5-year OS outcomes of HCC patients intuitively and accurately (concordance index = 0.745). By parallel comparison, this five-AR-lncRNA signature has better prognosis accuracy than the other three recently published signatures. Furthermore, we discovered the prediction ability of the signature on therapeutic outcomes of HCC patients, including chemotherapy and immunotherapeutic responses. Gene set enrichment analysis and gene mutation analysis revealed that dysregulated cell cycle pathway, purine metabolism, and TP53 mutation may play an important role in determining the OS outcomes of HCC patients in the high-risk group. Collectively, our study suggests a new five-AR-lncRNA prognostic signature for HCC patients.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ze-bing Song ◽  
Guo-pei Zhang ◽  
shaoqiang li

Abstract Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumor in the world which prognosis is poor. Therefore, a precise biomarker is needed to guide treatment and improve prognosis. More and more studies have shown that lncRNAs and immune response are closely related to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of this study was to establish a prognostic signature based on immune related lncRNAs for HCC.Methods: Univariate cox regression analysis was performed to identify immune related lncRNAs, which had negative correlation with overall survival (OS) of 370 HCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). A prognostic signature based on OS related lncRNAs was identified by using multivariate cox regression analysis. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network were performed to clarify the potential mechanism of lncRNAs included in prognostic signature. Results: A prognostic signature based on OS related lncRNAs (AC145207.5, AL365203.2, AC009779.2, ZFPM2-AS1, PCAT6, LINC00942) showed moderately in prognosis prediction, and related with pathologic stage (Stage I&II VS Stage III&IV), distant metastasis status (M0 VS M1) and tumor stage (T1-2 VS T3-4). CeRNA network constructed 15 aixs among differentially expressed immune related genes, lncRNAs included in prognostic signature and differentially expressed miRNA. GSEA indicated that these lncRNAs were involved in cancer-related pathways. Conclusion: We constructed a prognostic signature based on immune related lncRNAs which can predict prognosis and guide therapies for HCC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junyu Huo ◽  
Liqun Wu ◽  
Yunjin Zang

BackgroundThe high mutation rate of TP53 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) makes it an attractive potential therapeutic target. However, the mechanism by which TP53 mutation affects the prognosis of HCC is not fully understood.Material and ApproachThis study downloaded a gene expression profile and clinical-related information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and the international genome consortium (ICGC) database. We used Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) to determine the difference in gene expression patterns between HCC samples with wild-type TP53 (n=258) and mutant TP53 (n=116) in the TCGA cohort. We screened prognosis-related genes by univariate Cox regression analysis and Kaplan–Meier (KM) survival analysis. We constructed a six-gene prognostic signature in the TCGA training group (n=184) by Lasso and multivariate Cox regression analysis. To assess the predictive capability and applicability of the signature in HCC, we conducted internal validation, external validation, integrated analysis and subgroup analysis.ResultsA prognostic signature consisting of six genes (EIF2S1, SEC61A1, CDC42EP2, SRM, GRM8, and TBCD) showed good performance in predicting the prognosis of HCC. The area under the curve (AUC) values of the ROC curve of 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival of the model were all greater than 0.7 in each independent cohort (internal testing cohort, n = 181; TCGA cohort, n = 365; ICGC cohort, n = 229; whole cohort, n = 594; subgroup, n = 9). Importantly, by gene set variation analysis (GSVA) and the single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) method, we found three possible causes that may lead to poor prognosis of HCC: high proliferative activity, low metabolic activity and immunosuppression.ConclusionOur study provides a reliable method for the prognostic risk assessment of HCC and has great potential for clinical transformation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Guolin Wu ◽  
Zhenfeng Deng ◽  
Zongrui Jin ◽  
Jilong Wang ◽  
Banghao Xu ◽  
...  

Background. The prognosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is extremely poor and has not been improved. Thus, an effective method to assess the prognosis of patients must be established to improve their survival rate. Method. This study investigated immune-related genes that could be used as potential therapeutic targets for PAAD. Level 3 gene expression data from the PAAD cohort and the relevant clinical information were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. For validation, other PAAD datasets (DSE62452) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The PAAD datasets from TCGA and GEO were used to screen immune-related genes through the Molecular Signatures Database using gene set enrichment analysis. Then, the overlapping immune-related genes of the two datasets were identified. Coexpression networks of the immune-related genes were constructed. Results. A signature of three immune-related genes (CKLF, ERAP2, and EREG) was identified in patients with PAAD. The signature could be used to divide the patients with PAAD into high- and low-risk groups based on their median risk score. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to determine the independent prognostic factors of PAAD. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to assess the prediction accuracy of the prognostic signature. Last, a nomogram was established to assess the individualized prognosis prediction model based on the clinical characteristics and risk score of the TCGA PAAD dataset. The accuracy of the prognostic signature was further evaluated through functional evaluation and principal component analysis. Conclusions. The results indicated that the signature of three immune-related genes had excellent predictive value for PAAD. These findings might help improve personalized treatment and medical decisions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Wen ◽  
Yongcong Yan ◽  
Juanyi Shi ◽  
Lei Hu ◽  
Weidong Wang ◽  
...  

Background: Ferroptosis, as a unique programmed cell death modality, has been found to be closely related to the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hypoxia signaling pathway has been found to be extensively involved in the transformation and growth of HCC and to inhibit anti-tumor therapy through various approaches. However, there is no high-throughput study to explore the potential link between ferroptosis and hypoxia, as well as their combined effect on the prognosis of HCC.Methods: We included 370 patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and 231 patients in the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. Univariate COX regression and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator approach were used to construct ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs) and hypoxia-related genes (HRGs) prognostic signature (FHPS). Kaplan–Meier method and Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were analyzed to evaluate the predictive capability of FHPS. CIBERSOR and single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis were used to explore the connection between FHPS and tumor immune microenvironment. Immunohistochemical staining was used to compare the protein expression of prognostic FRGs and HRGs between normal liver tissue and HCC tissue. In addition, the nomogram was established to facilitate the clinical application of FHPS.Results: Ten FRGs and HRGs were used to establish the FHPS. We found consistent results in the TCGA training cohort, as well as in the independent ICGC validation cohort, that patients in the high-FHPS subgroup had advanced tumor staging, shorter survival time, and higher mortality. Moreover, patients in the high-FHPS subgroup showed ferroptosis suppressive, high hypoxia, and immunosuppression status. Finally, the nomogram showed a strong prognostic capability to predict overall survival (OS) for HCC patients.Conclusion: We developed a novel prognostic signature combining ferroptosis and hypoxia to predict OS, ferroptosis, hypoxia, and immune status, which provides a new idea for individualized treatment of HCC patients.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yajuan Du ◽  
Ying Gao

Abstract Background There is growing evidence that pseudogenes may serve as prognostic biomarkers in several cancers. The present study was designed to develop and validate an accurate and robust pseudogene pairs-based signature for the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods RNA-sequencing data from 374 HCC patients with clinical follow-up information were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and used in this study. Survival-related pseudogene pairs were identified, and a signature model was constructed by Cox regression analysis (univariate and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator). All individuals were classified into high- and low-risk groups based on the optimal cutoff. Subgroups analysis of the novel signature was conducted and validated in an independent cohort. Pearson correlation analyses were carried out between the included pseudogenes and the protein-coding genes based on their expression levels. Enrichment analysis was performed to predict the possible role of the pseudogenes identified in the signature. Results A 19-pseudogene pair signature, which included 21 pseudogenes, was established. Patients in high-risk group demonstrated an increased the risk of adverse prognosis in the TCGA cohort and the external cohort (all P < 0.001). The novel pseudogene signature was independent of other conventional clinical variables used for survival prediction in HCC patients in the two cohorts revealed by the multivariate Cox regression analysis (all P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis further demonstrated the diagnostic value of the signature across different stages, grades, sexes, and age groups. The C-index of the prognostic signature was 0.761, which was not only higher than that of several previous risk models but was also much higher than that of a single age, sex, grade, and stage risk model. Furthermore, functional analysis revealed that the potential biological mechanisms mediated by these pseudogenes are primarily involved in cytokine receptor activity, T cell receptor signaling, chemokine signaling, NF-κB signaling, PD-L1 expression, and the PD-1 checkpoint pathway in cancer. Conclusion The novel proposed and validated pseudogene pair-based signature may serve as a valuable independent prognostic predictor for predicting survival of patients with HCC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Xiaomin Wu ◽  
Xiaojing Zhang ◽  
Leilei Tao ◽  
Xichao Dai ◽  
Ping Chen

Purposes. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world. Recent researches have demonstrated that m6A methylation regulators play a key role in various cancers, such as gastric cancer and colon adenocarcinoma. Several m6A methylation regulators are reported to predict the prognosis of HCC. Therefore, there is a need to further identify the predictive value of m6A methylation regulators in HCC. Methods. We utilized The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to obtain the gene expression profile of m6A RNA methylation regulators and clinical information for patients with HCC. Besides, we identified two clusters of HCC with various clinical factors by consensus clustering analysis. Then the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and the Cox regression analysis were applied to construct a prognostic signature. Results. Except for ZC3H13 and METTL14, a majority of the thirteen m6A RNA methylation regulators were significantly overexpressed in HCC specimens. HCC patients were classified into two groups (cluster 1 and cluster 2). The cluster 1 was with a significantly worse prognosis than cluster 2, and most of the 13 known m6A RNA methylation regulators were upregulated in cluster 1. Besides, we developed a prognostic signature consisting of YTHDF2, YTHDF1, METTL3, KIAA1429, and ZC3H13, which could successfully differentiate high-risk patients. More importantly, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the signature-based risk score was an independent prognostic factor for patients with HCC. Conclusions. Our study showed these five m6A RNA methylation regulators can be used as practical and reliable prognostic tools of HCC, which might have potential value for therapeutic strategies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengfei Zhu ◽  
Zhang Lei ◽  
Du Zhicheng ◽  
Liao Yuan ◽  
Yan Lei ◽  
...  

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major public health burden worldwide owning to high incidence and poor prognosis. Although a mushrooming number of apoptosis-related genes had been disclosed in HCC, the prognostic value and clinical utility of them remain to be illustrated. Here, we defined the data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) as a training cohort and data from The Cancer Genome Atlas-Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma data set (TCGA-LIHC) as a validation cohort. The apoptosis-related differentially expressed genes (AR-DEGs) were identified with the two cohorts and the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. Then, we constructed a Lasso-penalized Cox regression model using AR-DEGs and conducted a signature including 14 apoptotic genes to calculate the risk score. Patients with a high risk score indicated worse overall survival than those with low risk. Besides, the 3-year and 5-year area under curve (AUC) values of the signature were above 0.7 in both training and validation cohorts (0.762, 0.818, 0.717, 0.745, respectively). Moreover, a nomogram containing the signature and clinical characteristics presented reliable net benefits for the survival prediction. And the nomogram was tested by probability calibration curves and Decision Curve Analysis (DCA). Furthermore, protein-protein interaction (PPI) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis disclosed several noticeable pathways that might clarify the hidden mechanism. Collectively, the present study formed a novel signature based on the 14 apoptotic genes and this possibly predicted prognosis and strengthened the communication with HCC patients about the likely treatment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliang Li ◽  
Zhirui Liu ◽  
Qian Wang

Abstract Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumor with high mortality and mortality. Although advances in early diagnosis, disease management and treatment of HCC, the outcomes remain unsatisfactory. This study aimed to identify the reliable prognostic biomarkers based integrated bioinformatics analysis to predict and improve the survival of HCC patients. Methods: The gene expression or transcriptome profiles and survival of HCC were acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO) and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened out by the limma or edgeR package in the R software. Univariate, LASSO and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to explore survival-related signature. Subsequently, a prognostic model and nomogram composed of prognostic signature were constructed for assessing overall survival (OS). Kaplan-Meier analysis, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and stratified analysis were performed to confirm the prognostic performance of the prognostic model.Results: Compared with nontumor samples, 451 reliable DEGs were identified using the robust rank aggregation and overlap validation. Eleven survival-related DEGs were selected for the construction of a risk evaluation model, which could efficiently distinguish high-risk patients from low-risk patients and even be feasible in the subgroups of stages and age. Further analyses suggested the positive and independent prognostic performance of the model compared to other clinical characteristics (P< 0.05, ROC > 0.7). Finally, a prognostic nomogram composed of the model was constructed for assessing the overall survival, and Harrell’s concordance index and calibration curves demonstrated its efficient predictive performance. Conclusion: The predictive model and nomogram will contribute directly to further clinical applications in the individualized survival prediction, the improvement of treatment strategies and more accurate management for patients with HCC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui-kun Zhang ◽  
Jia-lin Liu

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and invasive malignant tumors in the world. The change in DNA methylation is a key event in HCC. Methods Methylation datasets for HCC and 17 other types of cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The CpG sites with large differences in methylation between tumor tissues and paracancerous tissues were identified. We used the HCC methylation dataset downloaded from the TCGA as the training set and removed the overlapping sites among all cancer datasets to ensure that only CpG sites specific to HCC remained. Logistic regression analysis was performed to select specific biomarkers that can be used to diagnose HCC, and two datasets—GSE157341 and GSE54503—downloaded from GEO as validation sets were used to validate our model. We also used a Cox regression model to select CpG sites related to patient prognosis. Results We identified 6 HCC-specific methylated CpG sites as biomarkers for HCC diagnosis. In the training set, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) for the model containing all these sites was 0.971. The AUCs were 0.8802 and 0.9711 for the two validation sets from the GEO database. In addition, 3 other CpG sites were analyzed and used to create a risk scoring model for patient prognosis and survival prediction. Conclusions Through the analysis of HCC methylation datasets from the TCGA and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases, potential biomarkers for HCC diagnosis and prognosis evaluation were ascertained.


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