scholarly journals TEAD4 Serves as a Prognostic Biomarker and Correlates With Immune Phenotype in Lower-Grade Gliomas

Author(s):  
Mu Chen ◽  
Bingsong Huang ◽  
Lei Zhu ◽  
Kui Chen ◽  
Hao Lian ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs), which play a pivotal role in the tumor microenvironment, are intimately related to tumor progression and clinical outcome. It remains unclear which factors influence tumor immune infiltration in lower-grade gliomas (LGGs). TEAD4 (TEA Domain Transcription Factor 4) is an essential member of the Hippo pathway that is involved in cancer progression, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasis, and cancer stem cell function across multiple types of cancers. However, the prognostic value of TEAD4 and its association with TIICs in LGG have been hardly studied. Methods: LGG data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA). TEAD4 expression between different groups was compared by R and survival analysis was implemented by Kaplan–Meier curves. In Virto experiments were conducted to investigate the role of TEAD4 in glioma cells. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were used to investigate the differential biological processes and signaling pathways. Multiple computational methods were employed to estimate the association between TEAD4 expression and tumor microenvironment in LGG. Correlations were analyzed by Spearman correlationResults: TEAD4 expression was up-regulated in higher-grade gliomas and correlated with a poorer clinical outcome. Glioma cell proliferation and migration were promoted by TEAD4 overexpression. GSEA and PPI network indicated that multiple immune-related pathways and hub genes were closely associated with TEAD4 expression in LGG specimens. TEAD4 expression was negatively associated with glioma purity. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that TEAD4 expression and tumor purity were independent prognostic factors in LGG. TEAD4 expression was positively correlated with the infiltration of multiple immune cells, including plasma cells, CD8+ T cells, and macrophages M1 and M2. Correlation analysis showed that the TEAD4 level can predict the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Conclusions: TEAD4 is highly related to glioma malignancy grades and multiple immune cell infiltration, suggesting TEAD4 can serve as a new biomarker for anti-cancer therapies in LGG.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bolun Zhang ◽  
Feng Guan ◽  
Bin Dai ◽  
Guangtong Zhu ◽  
Beibei Mao ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundIn the glioma microenvironment, infiltrating immune cells has been shown to possess beneficial effects for tumor progression. Immune cells and stromal cells dominate the tumor microenvironment in glioma. The complex interplay between the tumor progression with immune cells or stromal cells was still unknown. MethodsIn this study, we used Estimation of stromal and immune cells in malignant tumor tissues using expression data (ESTIMATE) calculations to calculate the proportion of tumour-infiltrating immune cells (TIC) and the number of immune and stromal components in glioma cases from the cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) databases. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) were analyzed by COX regression analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction. Then, JAK3, IL2RB and CD3E were identified as predictors by the intersection analysis of univariate COX and PPI, and further analysis showed that the expression of them were positively correlated with survival and clinicopathological characteristics of glioma patients. Finally, the Cell type Identification By Estimating Relative Subsets Of known RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT) deconvolution algorithm was applied to quantify the fraction and infiltration of 22 types of immune cells in glioma. ResultsOur results showed that ESTIMATEScores Were Correlated with the Survival of glioma Patients, DEGs Shared by ImmuneScore and StromalScore were predominantly presented as the enrichment of immune-related genes gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). The intersection analysis of PPI network and univariate COX regression enabled us to identify three genes (JAK3, IL2RB and CD3E) that had never been reported before, whose expression was correlated with clinical characteristics such as survival and WHO grading of these patients. CITICSORT analysis of TIC ratio showed that B cell memory and CD8 + T cells were positively correlated with JAK3, IL2RB and CD3E expression, suggesting that these genes may be responsible for maintaining the immunodominant state of TME. CIBERSORT analysis for the proportion of TICs revealed that the levels of JAK3, IL2RB and CD3E affected the immune activity of TME.ConclusionOur results confirmed that the JAK3, IL2RB and CD3E can be used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for glioma and may be used as therapeutic targets in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huaide Qiu ◽  
Yongqiang Li ◽  
Shupeng Cheng ◽  
Jiahui Li ◽  
Chuan He ◽  
...  

ObjectiveIn the development of immunotherapies in gliomas, the tumor microenvironment (TME) needs to be investigated. We aimed to construct a prognostic microenvironment-related immune signature via ESTIMATE (PROMISE model) for glioma.MethodsStromal score (SS) and immune score (IS) were calculated via ESTIMATE for each glioma sample in the cancer genome atlas (TCGA), and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between high-score and low-score groups. Prognostic DEGs were selected via univariate Cox regression analysis. Using the lower-grcade glioma (LGG) data set in TCGA, we performed LASSO regression based on the prognostic DEGs and constructed a PROMISE model for glioma. The model was validated with survival analysis and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) in TCGA glioma data sets (LGG, glioblastoma multiforme [GBM] and LGG+GBM) and Chinese glioma genome atlas (CGGA). A nomogram was developed to predict individual survival chances. Further, we explored the underlying mechanisms using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and Cibersort analysis of tumor-infiltrating immune cells between risk groups as defined by the PROMISE model.ResultsWe obtained 220 upregulated DEGs and 42 downregulated DEGs in both high-IS and high-SS groups. The Cox regression highlighted 155 prognostic DEGs, out of which we selected 4 genes (CD86, ANXA1, C5AR1, and CD5) to construct a PROMISE model. The model stratifies glioma patients in TCGA as well as in CGGA with distinct survival outcome (P<0.05, Hazard ratio [HR]>1) and acceptable predictive accuracy (AUCs>0.6). With the nomogram, an individualized survival chance could be predicted intuitively with specific age, tumor grade, Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) status, and the PROMISE risk score. ROC showed significant discrimination with the area under curves (AUCs) of 0.917 and 0.817 in TCGA and CGGA, respectively. GSEA between risk groups in both data sets were significantly enriched in multiple immune-related pathways. The Cibersort analysis highlighted four immune cells, i.e., CD 8 T cells, neutrophils, follicular helper T (Tfh) cells, and Natural killer (NK) cells.ConclusionsThe PROMISE model can further stratify both LGG and GBM patients with distinct survival outcomes.These findings may help further our understanding of TME in gliomas and shed light on immunotherapies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jincheng He ◽  
Lei Jiang ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Guangtao Min ◽  
Xiangwen Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract The communication between tumor cells and immune cells influences the ecology of the tumor microenvironment in breast cancer, as well as the disease progression and clinical outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of the immunomodulatory factor CLEC10A in breast cancer. We applied the CIBERSORT and ESTIMATE calculation methods to calculate the proportion of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) and the amount of immune and stromal components in 1053 BRCA cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed by COX regression analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction. Then, CLEC10A was identified as a prognostic factor by the intersection analysis of univariate COX and PPI. Further analysis revealed that CLEC10A expression was negatively correlated with the clinical pathologic characteristics (age, clinical stage) and positively correlated with survival of BRCA patients. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed that genes in the high CLEC10A expression group were mainly enriched in immune-related activities. Genes in the low CLEC10A expression group were enriched in biochemical functions. CIBERSORT analysis of the proportion of TICs revealed that Macrophages M1, B cells memory, B cells naive, T cells CD4+ memory activated, T cells CD8+, and T cells gamma delta were positively correlated with CLEC10A expression, and Macrophages M0, Macrophages M2, Neutrophils, and NK cells resting were positively correlated with CLEC10A expression was negatively correlated, suggesting that CLEC10A may be an important factor in the immune regulation of the tumor microenvironment, especially in mediating the anti-tumor immune response of tumor-infiltrating immune cells at the tumor initiation stage. Therefore, CLEC10A expression may contribute to the prognosis of BRCA patients and provide a new idea for the immunotherapy of BRCA.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yizhou Huang ◽  
Lizhi Chen ◽  
Ziyi Tang ◽  
Yu Min ◽  
Wanli Yu ◽  
...  

BackgroundBreast cancer (BC) is the most frequent cancer in women. The tumor microenvironment (TME), consisting of blood vessels, immune cells, fibroblasts, and extracellular matrix, plays a pivotal role in tumorigenesis and progression. Increasing evidence has emphasized the importance of TME, especially the immune components, in patients with BC. Nevertheless, we still lack a deep understanding of the correlation between tumor invasion and TME status.MethodsTranscriptome and clinical data were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. ESTIMATE algorithm was applied for quantifying stromal and immune scores. Then we screened out the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) through the intersection analysis. Furthermore, the establishment of protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and univariate COX regression analysis were utilized to determine the core genes in DEGs. In addition, we also performed Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and CIBERSORT analysis to distinguish the function of crucial gene expression and the proportion of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs), respectively.ResultsA total of 1178 samples (112 normal samples and 1066 tumor samples) were extracted from TCGA for calculation, and 226 DEGs were obtained from this assessment. Further intersection analysis revealed eight key genes, including ITK, CD3E, CCL19, CD2, SH2D1A, CD5, SLAMF6, SPN, which were proven to correlate with BC status. Moreover, ITK was picked out for further study. The results illustrated that high expression of BC patients had a more prolonged overall survival (OS) time than ITK low expression BC patients (p = 0.009), and ITK expression also presented the statistical significance in age, TNM staging, tumor size classification, and metastasis classification. Additionally, GSEA and CIBERSORT analysis indicated that ITK expression had an association with immune activity in TME.ConclusionITK may be a potential indicator for prognosis prediction in patients with BC, and its biological behavior may promote our understanding of the molecular mechanism of tumor progression and targeted therapy.


Author(s):  
Bo Xiao ◽  
Liyan Liu ◽  
Zhuoyuan Chen ◽  
Aoyu Li ◽  
Pingxiao Wang ◽  
...  

Melanoma is the most common cancer of the skin, associated with a worse prognosis and distant metastasis. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a reversible cellular biological process that plays significant roles in diverse tumor functions, and it is modulated by specific genes and transcription factors. The relevance of EMT-related lncRNAs in melanoma has not been determined. Therefore, RNA expression data and clinical features were collected from the TCGA database (N = 447). Melanoma samples were randomly assigned into the training (315) and testing sets (132). An EMT-related lncRNA signature was constructed via comprehensive analyses of lncRNA expression level and corresponding clinical data. The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed significant differences in overall survival in patients with melanoma in the low and high-risk groups in two sets. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to measure the performance of the model. Cox regression analysis indicated that the risk score was an independent prognostic factor in two sets. Besides, a nomogram was constructed based on the independent variables. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was applied to evaluate the potential biological functions in the two risk groups. Furthermore, the melanoma microenvironment was evaluated using ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT algorithms in the risk groups. This study indicates that EMT-related lncRNAs can function as potential independent prognostic biomarkers for melanoma survival.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jixiang Cao ◽  
Xi Chen ◽  
Guang Lu ◽  
Haowei Wang ◽  
Xinyu Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the most common malignancy of the biliary tract with a dismal prognosis. Increasing evidence suggests that tumor microenvironment (TME) is closely associated with cancer prognosis. However, the prognostic signature for CCA based on TME has not yet been reported. This study aimed to develop a TME-related prognostic signature for accurately predicting the prognosis of patients with CCA. Methods: Based on the TCGA database, we calculated the stromal and immune scores using the ESTIMATE algorithm to assess TME in stromal and immune cells derived from CCA. TME-related differentially expressed genes were identified, followed by functional enrichment analysis and PPI network analysis. Univariate Cox regression analysis, Lasso Cox regression model and multivariable Cox regression analysis were performed to identify and construct the TME-related prognostic gene signature. Gene Set Enrichment Analyses (GSEA) was performed to further investigate the potential molecular mechanisms. The correlations between the risk scores and tumor infiltration immune cells were analyzed using Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) database. Results: A total of 784 TME-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, which were mainly enriched in immune-related processes and pathways. Among these TME-related DEGs, A novel two‑gene signature (including GAD1 and KLRB1) was constructed for CCA prognosis prediction. The AUC of the prognostic model for predicting the survival of patients at 1-, 2-, and 3- years was 0.811, 0.772, and 0.844, respectively. Cox regression analysis showed that the two‑gene signature was an independent prognostic factor. Based on the risk scores of the prognostic model, CCA patients were divided into high- and low-risk groups, and patients with high-risk score had shorter survival time than those with low-risk score. Furthermore, we found that the risk scores were negatively correlated with TME-scores and the number of several tumor infiltration immune cells, including B cells and CD4+ T cells. Conclusion: Our study established a novel TME-related gene signature to predict the prognosis of patients with CCA. This might provide a new understanding of the potential relationship between TME and CCA prognosis, and serve as a prognosis stratification tool for guiding personalized treatment of CCA patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kebing Huang ◽  
Xiaoyu Yue ◽  
Yinfei Zheng ◽  
Zhengwei Zhang ◽  
Meng Cheng ◽  
...  

Glioma is well known as the most aggressive and prevalent primary malignant tumor in the central nervous system. Molecular subtypes and prognosis biomarkers remain a promising research area of gliomas. Notably, the aberrant expression of mesenchymal (MES) subtype related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) is significantly associated with the prognosis of glioma patients. In this study, MES-related genes were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Ivy Glioblastoma Atlas Project (Ivy GAP) data sets of glioma, and MES-related lncRNAs were acquired by performing co-expression analysis of these genes. Next, Cox regression analysis was used to establish a prognostic model, that integrated ten MES-related lncRNAs. Glioma patients in TCGA were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups based on the median risk score; compared with the low-risk groups, patients in the high-risk group had shorter survival times. Additionally, we measured the specificity and sensitivity of our model with the ROC curve. Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses showed that the prognostic model was an independent prognostic factor for glioma. To verify the predictive power of these candidate lncRNAs, the corresponding RNA-seq data were downloaded from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), and similar results were obtained. Next, we performed the immune cell infiltration profile of patients between two risk groups, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to detect functional annotation. Finally, the protective factors DGCR10 and HAR1B, and risk factor SNHG18 were selected for functional verification. Knockdown of DGCR10 and HAR1B promoted, whereas knockdown of SNHG18 inhibited the migration and invasion of gliomas. Collectively, we successfully constructed a prognostic model based on a ten MES-related lncRNAs signature, which provides a novel target for predicting the prognosis for glioma patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liguo Ye ◽  
Yang Xu ◽  
Ping Hu ◽  
Long Wang ◽  
Ji’an Yang ◽  
...  

Background: Lower-grade glioma (LGG) is the most common histology identified in gliomas, a heterogeneous tumor that may develop into high-grade malignant glioma that seriously shortens patient survival time. Recent studies reported that glutamatergic synapses might play an essential role in the progress of gliomas. However, the role of glutamatergic synapse-related biomarkers in LGG has not been systemically researched yet.Methods: The mRNA expression data of glioma and normal brain tissue were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and Genotype-Tissue Expression, respectively, and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas database was used as a validation set. Difference analysis was performed to evaluate the expression pattern of glutamatergic synapse-related genes (GSRGs) in LGG. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression was applied to construct the glutamatergic synapse-related risk signature (GSRS), and the risk score of each LGG sample was calculated based on the coefficients and expression value of selected GSRGs. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to investigate the prognostic value of risk score. Immunity profile and single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) were performed to explore the association between risk score and the characters of tumor microenvironment in LGG. Gene set variation analysis (GSVA) was performed to investigate the potential pathways related to GSRS. The HPA database and real-time PCR were used to identify the expression of hub genes identified in GSRS.Results: A total of 22 genes of 39 GSRGs were found differentially expressed among normal and LGG samples. Through the LASSO algorithm, 14-genes GSRS constructed were associated with the prognosis and clinicopathological features of patients with LGG. Furthermore, the risk score level was significantly positively correlated with the infiltrating level of immunosuppressive cells, including M2 macrophages and regulatory T cells. GSVA identified a series of cancer-related pathways related to GSRS, such as P13K-AKT and P53 pathways. Moreover, ATAD1, NLGN2, OXTR, and TNR, hub genes identified in GSRS, were considered as potential prognostic biomarkers in LGG.Conclusion: A 14-genes GSRS was constructed and verified in this study. We provided a novel insight into the role of GSRS in LGG through a series of bioinformatics methods.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijun Ning ◽  
Yuqing Yan ◽  
Tianying Tong ◽  
Ziyun Gao ◽  
Zhe Cui ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: As tumor microenvironment (TME) play an indispensable role in tumorigenesis of colorectal cancer, this study performs a bunch of bioinformatics analysis to identify the indicator of the status of TME in Colorectal cancer (CRC). Results: In the presented study, we applied CIBERSORT and ESTIMATE computational methods to calculate the proportion of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) and the amount of immune and stromal components in 444 COAD-READ cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed by COX regression analysis and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network construction. Then, fatty acid-binding protein four ( FABP4 ) was determined as a predictive factor by the intersection analysis of univariate COX and PPI. Further analysis revealed that FABP4 expression was positively correlated with the clinical pathologic characteristics (clinical stage, distant metastasis) and negatively correlated with the survival of CRC patients. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) showed that the genes in the high-expression FABP4 group were mainly enriched in immune-related activities. In the low-expression FABP4 group, the genes were enriched in metabolic pathways. CIBERSORT analysis for the proportion of TICs revealed that NK cell, CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells were negatively correlated with FABP4 expression, suggesting that FABP4 might be a potential prognostic factor of CRC patients. Conclusion: Our study has developed a new biomarker (FABP4) that can predict the status of tumor microenvironment in Colorectal cancer. Keywords: FABP4, tumor microenvironment, ESTIMATE, CIBERSORT, colorectal cancer


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingyu Liang ◽  
Gefei Guan ◽  
Xue Li ◽  
Chunmi Wei ◽  
Jianqi Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Molecular classification has laid the framework for exploring glioma biology and treatment strategies. Pro-neural to mesenchymal transition (PMT) of glioma is known to be associated with aggressive phenotypes, unfavorable prognosis, and treatment resistance. Recent studies have highlighted that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are key mediators in cancer mesenchymal transition. However, the relationship between lncRNAs and PMT in glioma has not been systematically investigated. Methods Gene expression profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), GSE16011, and Rembrandt with available clinical and genomic information were used for analyses. Bioinformatics methods such as weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), Cox analysis, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analysis were performed. Results According to PMT scores, we confirmed that PMT status was positively associated with risky behaviors and poor prognosis in glioma. The 149 PMT-related lncRNAs were identified by WGCNA analysis, among which 10 (LINC01057, TP73-AS1, AP000695.4, LINC01503, CRNDE, OSMR-AS1, SNHG18, AC145343.2, RP11-25K21.6, RP11-38L15.2) with significant prognostic value were further screened to construct a PMT-related lncRNA risk signature, which could divide cases into two groups with distinct prognoses. Multivariate Cox regression analyses indicated that the signature was an independent prognostic factor for high-grade glioma. High-risk cases were more likely to be classified as the mesenchymal subtype, which confers enhanced immunosuppressive status by recruiting macrophages, neutrophils, and regulatory T cells. Moreover, six lncRNAs of the signature could act as competing endogenous RNAs to promote PMT in glioblastoma. Conclusions We profiled PMT status in glioma and established a PMT-related 10-lncRNA signature for glioma that could independently predict glioma survival and trigger PMT, which enhanced immunosuppression.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document