A Pyroptosis-Associated Signature Plays a Role in Prognosis Prediction And Indicating Infiltration in Immune Microenvironment in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma
Abstract Background: About 90% renal malignancies are RCCs (renal cell carcinomas) and the main subtype in histology is ccRCC (clear cell RCC). In recent years, pyroptosis was considered as a kind of inflammation-related programmed cell death, which played a part in the invasion, metastasis and proliferation of tumor cells, thereby influencing tumor prognosis. Nonetheless, the expression level of pyroptosis-associated genes in RCCs and its relationship with prognosis are still not clear. Results: In our research, 44 regulators for pyroptosis were identified which were expressed differentially between normal kidney and ccRCC tissues. ccRCC cases were categorized into 2 subgroups with a significant difference between them in OS (overall survival) according to the DEGs (differentially expressed genes). The prognostic value of pyroptosis-associated genes was assessed as a signature based on the cohort of TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas). Following Cox regression with DEGs and LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator), a 6-gene signature had been set up and all the ccRCC cases in the cohort of TCGA were categorized into LR (low-risk) group or HR (high-risk) group (P < 0.001). In combination with clinical features, risk scores were considered as a predicting factor of OS in ccRCC cases. KEGG (Kyoto Encylopedia of Genes and Genomes) and GO (Gene ontology) analyses implied increased immunity and enrichment of genes related to immunity in the HR group. Conclusions: Our findings indicated that the genes related to pyroptosis had an important role in tumor immunity, which were potentially used to predict the prognosis of ccRCCs.