scholarly journals Identification of Prognostic Stromal-Immune Score–Based Genes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Microenvironment

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanshan Liu ◽  
Guangchuang Yu ◽  
Li Liu ◽  
Xuejing Zou ◽  
Lang Zhou ◽  
...  

A growing amount of evidence has suggested the clinical importance of stromal and immune cells in the liver cancer microenvironment. However, reliable prognostic signatures based on assessments of stromal and immune components have not been well-established. This study aimed to identify stromal-immune score–based potential prognostic biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma. Stromal and immune scores were estimated from transcriptomic profiles of a liver cancer cohort from The Cancer Genome Atlas using the ESTIMATE (Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumors using Expression data) algorithm. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm was applied to select prognostic genes. Favorable overall survivals and progression-free interval were found in patients with high stromal score and immune score, and 828 differentially expressed genes were identified. Functional enrichment analysis and protein–protein interaction networks further showed that these genes mainly participated in immune response, extracellular matrix, and cell adhesion. MMP9 (matrix metallopeptidase 9) was identified as a prognostic tumor microenvironment–associated gene by using LASSO and TIMER (Tumor IMmune Estimation Resource) algorithms and was found to be positively correlated with immunosuppressive molecules and drug response.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenfeng Deng ◽  
Jilong Wang ◽  
Banghao Xu ◽  
Zongrui Jin ◽  
Guolin Wu ◽  
...  

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and lethal malignancies. Recent studies reveal that tumor microenvironment (TME) components significantly affect HCC growth and progression, particularly the infiltrating stromal and immune cells. Thus, mining of TME-related biomarkers is crucial to improve the survival of patients with HCC. Public access of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database allows convenient performance of gene expression-based analysis of big data, which contributes to the exploration of potential association between genes and prognosis of a variety of malignancies, including HCC. The “Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumors using Expression data” algorithm renders the quantification of the stromal and immune components in TME possible by calculating the stromal and immune scores. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened by dividing the HCC cohort of TCGA database into high- and low-score groups according to stromal and immune scores. Further analyses of functional enrichment and protein-protein interaction networks show that the DEGs are mainly involved in immune response, cell adhesion, and extracellular matrix. Finally, seven DEGs have significant association with HCC poor outcomes. These genes contain FABP3, GALNT5, GPR84, ITGB6, MYEOV, PLEKHS1, and STRA6 and may be candidate biomarkers for HCC prognosis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Tang Xiaoli ◽  
Wang Wenting ◽  
Zhang Meixiang ◽  
Zuo Chunlei ◽  
Hu Chengxia

Background. Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world. The potential functions and mechanisms of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in GC development are still unclear. It is of great significance to explore the prognostic value of LncRNA signatures for GC. Methods. LncRNAs differently expressed in GC and their prognostic value were studied based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The functional regulatory network and immune infiltration of RP11-357H14.17 were further studied using a variety of bioinformatics tools and databases. Results. We found that the high expression of RP11-357H14.17 was closely associated with shortened overall survival (OS) and poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients. We also found that its expression was related to clinical features including tumor volume, metastasis, and differentiation. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that RP11-357H14.17 is closely related to enhanced DNA replication and metabolism; ssGSEA analysis implied the oncogenic roles of RP11-357H14.17 was related to ATF2 signaling and Treg cell differentiation. Furthermore, we verified such link by using real-time PCR and IHC staining in human GC samples. Conclusion. We demonstrate that RP11-357H14.17 may play a crucial role in the occurrence, development, and malignant biological behavior of gastric cancer as a potential prognostic marker for gastric cancer.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingling Gao ◽  
Xin Nie ◽  
Wenchao Zhang ◽  
Rui Gou ◽  
Yuexin Hu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in gynecology. The potential functions and mechanisms of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the occurrence and progression of EC remains unclear. It’s meaningful to explore lncRNAs signature for providing prognostic value of EC. Methods:The differentially expressed lncRNAs and their prognostic values in EC were investigated based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database; the transcriptional factors (TFs), the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism, functional regulatory network and immune infiltration of RP11-89K21.1 and RP11-357H14.17 were further explored by various bioinformatics tools and databases. Results: We first identified high expression of RP11-89K21.1 and RP11-357H14.17 were closely associated with shorten overall survival (OS) and poor prognosis in patients with EC. We also elucidated the networks of transcription factor and co-expression genes associated with RP11-89K21.1 and RP11-357H14.17. Furthermore, the ceRNA network mechanism was successfully constructed through 2 lncRNAs (RP11-89K21.1 and RP11-357H14.17), 11 miRNAs and 183 mRNAs. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the targeting genes of RP11-89K21.1 and RP11-357H14.17 were strongly associated with microRNAs in cancer, vessel development, growth regulation, growth factor and cell differentiation, and involved in pathways including pathways in cancer, microRNAs in cancer and apoptotic signaling pathway. Conclusions: We demonstrated for the first time that RP11-89K21.1 and RP11-357H14.17 may play crucial roles in the occurrence, development and malignant biological behavior of EC, and can be regarded as potential prognostic biomarkers for EC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Deng ◽  
Xiaohan Cui ◽  
Yuxiang Dong ◽  
Yanqiu Tang ◽  
Xuewen Tao ◽  
...  

BackgroundCircular RNAs (circRNAs) are now under hot discussion as novel promising biomarkers for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The purpose of our study is to identify several competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks related to the prognosis and progression of HCC and to further investigate the mechanism of their influence on tumor progression.MethodsFirst, we obtained gene expression data related to liver cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database (http://www.portal.gdc.cancer.gov/), including microRNA (miRNA) sequence, RNA sequence, and clinical information. A co-expression network was constructed through the Weighted Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) software package in R software. The differentially expressed messenger RNAs (DEmRNAs) in the key module were analyzed with the Database for Annotation Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) (https://david.ncifcrf.gov/summary.jsp) to perform functional enrichment analysis including Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO). The data of miRNA expression and clinical information downloaded from TCGA were utilized for survival analysis to detach the prognostic value of the DEmiRNAs of the key module.ResultsThe 201 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) and 3,783 DEmRNAs were preliminarily identified through differential expression analysis. The co-expression networks of DEmiRNAs and DEmRNAs were constructed with WGCNA. Further analysis confirmed four miRNAs in the most significant module (blue module) were associated with the overall survival (OS) of patients with liver cancer, including hsa-miR-92b-3p, hsa-miR-122-3p, hsa-miR-139-5p, and hsa-miR-7850-5p. DAVID was used for functional enrichment analysis of 286 co-expressed mRNAs. The GO analysis results showed that the top enriched GO terms were oxidation–reduction process, extracellular exosome, and iron ion binding. In KEGG pathway analysis, the top three enriched terms included metabolic pathways, fatty acid degradation, and valine, leucine, and isoleucine degradation. In addition, we intersected the miRNA–mRNA interaction prediction results with the differentially expressed and prognostic mRNAs. We found that hsa-miR-92b-3p can be related to CPEB3 and ACADL. By overlapping the data of predicted circRNAs by circBank and differentially expressed circRNAs of GSE94508, we screened has_circ_0077210 as the upstream regulatory molecule of hsa-miR-92b-3p. Hsa_circ_0077210/hsa-miR-92b-3p/cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein-3 (CPEB3) and acyl-Coenzyme A dehydrogenase, long chain (ACADL) were validated in HCC tissue.ConclusionOur research provides a mechanistic elucidation of the unknown ceRNA regulatory network in HCC. Hsa_circ_0077210 might serve a momentous therapeutic role to restrain the occurrence and development of HCC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Fang ◽  
Yang Yang ◽  
XiaoLi Zhang ◽  
Na Li ◽  
Bo Yuan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The mechanistic basis for the relapse of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poorly understood. Recent research has highlighted the important roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in HCC. However, there are only a few studies on lncRNAs associated with the relapse of HCC.Methods:We analyzed lncRNA and mRNA profiles in the GSE101432 dataset associated with HCC relapse. The differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were used to construct an lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis followed by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses were conducted on the database. Furthermore, correlation and survival analyses were performed using The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and the clinical samples were verified by qRT-PCR.Results:In this study, lncRNAs and mRNAs associated with HCC recurrence were identified. Two gene modules were found to be closely linked to HCC relapse. The functional enrichment analysis results of lncRNAs and co-expression mRNAs indicated that they were closely related to the recurrence of HCC. In addition, we verified that the overall survival and recurrence-free survival of these genes in HCC have survival prediction functions. In total, we identified and validated two lncRNAs (LINC00941 and LINC00668) and six mRNAs (LOX, MICB, OTX1, BAIAP2L2, KCTD17, NDUFA4L2) associated with HCC relapse.Conclusion: In summary, we identified the key gene modules and central genes associated with recurrent HCC, and constructed lncRNA-mRNA networks related to this cancer type. These results provide a foundation for future basic research on the mechanism of recurrent liver cancer.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Fang ◽  
Yang Yang ◽  
XiaoLi Zhang ◽  
Na Li ◽  
Bo Yuan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The mechanistic basis for the relapse of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poorly understood. Recent research has highlighted the important roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in HCC. However, there are only a few studies on lncRNAs associated with the relapse of HCC.Methods:We analyzed lncRNA and mRNA profiles in the GSE101432 dataset associated with HCC relapse. The differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were used to construct a lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis followed by Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses were conducted on the database. Furthermore, correlation and survival analyses were performed using The Cancer Genome Atlas database, and the clinical samples were verified by qRT-PCR.Results:In this study, lncRNAs and mRNAs associated with HCC relapse were identified. Two gene modules were found to be closely linked to HCC relapse. The functional enrichment analysis results of lncRNAs and co-expression mRNAs indicated that they were closely related to the relapse of HCC. In addition, we verified that the overall survival and recurrence-free survival of these genes in HCC have survival prediction functions. In total, we identified and validated two lncRNAs (LINC00941 and LINC00668) and six mRNAs (LOX, MICB, OTX1, BAIAP2L2, KCTD17, NDUFA4L2) associated with HCC relapse.Conclusion: In summary, we identified the key gene modules and central genes associated with relapse of HCC, and constructed lncRNA-mRNA networks related to this cancer type. These results provide a foundation for future basic research on the mechanism of relapse of HCC.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Deng ◽  
XiaoHan Cui ◽  
Yuxiang Dong ◽  
Yanqiu Tang ◽  
Xuewen Tao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are now under hot discussion as novel promising bio-markers for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The purpose of our study is to identify several competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) networks related to the prognosis and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma, and to further investigate the mechanism of their influence on tumor progression.Methods: First, we obtained gene expression data related to liver cancer from the TCGA database (http://www.portal.gdc.cancer.gov/), including miRNA-seq, RNA-seq and clinical information. A co-expression network was constructed through the WGCNA software package in R software, with the purpose of identifying important microRNAs (miRNAs) and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) related to liver cancer. The DEmRNAs in the key module were analyzed with DAVID (https://david.ncifcrf.gov/summary.jsp) to perform functional enrichment analysis including Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and gene ontology (GO). The data of miRNA expression and clinical information downloaded from TCGA was utilized for survival analysis to detach the prognostic value of the DEmiRNAs of the key module. Results:201 DEmiRNAs and 3783 DEmRNAs were finally identified through differential expression analysis. The co-expression networks of DEmiRNA and DEmRNA were constructed by using WGCNA. Further analysis confirmed 4 miRNAs in the most significant module (blue module) were associated with the OS of patients with liver cancer, including hsa-miR-92b-3p, hsa-miR-122-3p, hsa-miR-139-5p and hsa-miR-7850-5p. DAVID was used for functional enrichment analysis of 286 co-expressed mRNAs. The Gene Ontology (GO) analysis results showed that the top enriched GO terms were oxidation-reduction process, extracellular exosome and iron ion binding. In Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, the top 3 enriched terms included metabolic pathways, fatty acid degradation and valine, leucine and isoleucine degradation. In addition, we corssed the miRNA-mRNA interactions prediction results with the differentially expressed and prognostic mRNAs, and found that hsa-miR-92b-3p can be related to cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein 3 (CPEB3) and Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Long Chain (ACADL). By overlapping the data of predicted circRNAs by circBank and differentially expressed circRNAs of GSE94508, we screened has_circ_0077210 as the upstream regulatory molecule of hsa-miR-92b-3p. Hsa_circ_0077210/hsa-miR-92b-3p/CPEB3&ACADL were validated in hepatic cell carcinoma (HCC) tissues and human protein atlas (HPA) database.Conclusion: Our research provides a mechanistic elucidation of the unknown ceRNA regulatory network in HCC. Hsa_circ_0077210 might serve as an important biomarker to promote the occurrence and development of HCC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanshan Yu ◽  
Luya Cai ◽  
Chuan Liu ◽  
Ruihong Gu ◽  
Lingyi Cai ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, and its 5-year survival rate is less than 20%, despite various treatments being available. Increasing evidence indicates that alternative splicing (AS) plays a nonnegligible role in the formation and development of the tumor microenvironment (TME). However, the comprehensive analysis of the impact on prognostic AS events on immune-related perspectives in HCC is lacking but urgently needed. Methods The transcriptional data and clinical information of HCC patients were downloaded from TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) database for calculating immune and stromal scores by ESTIMATE algorithm. We then divided patients into high/low score groups and explored their prognostic significance using Kaplan–Meier curves. Based on stromal and immune scores, differentially expressed AS events (DEASs) were screened and evaluated with functional enrichment analysis. Additionally, a risk score model was established by applying univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Finally, gene set variation analysis (GSVA) was adopted to explore differences in biological behaviors between the high- and low-risk subgroups. Results A total of 370 HCC patients with complete and qualified corresponding data were included in the subsequent analysis. According to the results of ESTIMATE analysis, we observed that the high immune/stromal score group had a longer survival probability, which was significantly correlated with prognosis in HCC patients. In addition, 467 stromal/immune score-related DEASs were identified, and enrichment analysis revealed that DEASs were significantly enriched in pathways related to HCC tumorigenesis and the immune microenvironment. More importantly, the final prognostic signature containing 16 DEASs showed powerful predictive ability. Finally, GSVA demonstrated that activation of carcinogenic pathways and immune-related pathways in the high-risk group may lead to poor prognosis. Conclusions Collectively, these outcomes revealed prognostic AS events related to carcinogenesis and the immune microenvironment, which may yield new directions for HCC immunotherapy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Zhou ◽  
Xiaowei Zhu ◽  
Junchao Yao ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
Ning Wang

Abstract Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal human solid malignancies with devastating prognosis, making biomarker detection considerably important. Immune infiltrates in microenvironment is associated with patients’ survival in PC. The role of TPM4 (Tropomyosin 4) gene in PC has not been reported. Our study first identifies TPM4 expression and its potential biological functions in PC. The potential oncogenic roles of TPM4 was examined using the datasets of TCGA (The cancer genome atlas) and GEO (Gene expression omnibus). We investigated the clinical significance and prognostic value of TPM4 gene based on The Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) and survival analysis. TIMER and TISIDB databases were used to analyze the correlations between TPM4 gene and tumor-infiltrating immune cells. We found that the expression level of TPM4 was upregulated in PC malignant tissues with the corresponding normal tissues as controls. High TPM4 expression was correlated with the worse clinicopathological features and poor prognosis in PC cohorts. The positive association between TPM4 expression and tumor-infiltrating immune cells was identified in tumor microenvironment (TME). Moreover, functional enrichment analysis suggested that TPM4 might participate in cell adhesion and promote tumor cell migration. This is the first comprehensive study to disclose that TPM4 may serve as a novel prognostic biomarker associating with immune infiltrates and provide a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of PC.This study is not a clinical trial without the registration number.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Peng Qin ◽  
Mengyu Zhang ◽  
Xue Liu ◽  
Ziming Dong

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death. HBV infection is an important risk factor for the tumorigenesis of HCC, given that the inflammatory environment is closely related to morbidity and prognosis. Consequently, it is of urgent importance to explore the immunogenomic landscape to supplement the prognosis of HCC. The expression profiles of immune‐related genes (IRGs) were integrated with 377 HCC patients to generate differentially expressed IRGs based on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. These IRGs were evaluated and assessed in terms of their diagnostic and prognostic values. A total of 32 differentially expressed immune‐related genes resulted as significantly correlated with the overall survival of HCC patients. The Gene Ontology functional enrichment analysis revealed that these genes were actively involved in cytokine‐cytokine receptor interaction. A prognostic signature based on IRGs (HSPA4, PSME3, PSMD14, FABP6, ISG20L2, TRAF3, NDRG1, NRAS, CSPG5, and IL17D) stratified patients into high-risk versus low-risk groups in terms of overall survival and remained as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analyses after adjusting for clinical and pathologic factors. Several IRGs (HSPA4, PSME3, PSMD14, FABP6, ISG20L2, TRAF3, NDRG1, NRAS, CSPG5, and IL17D) of clinical significance were screened in the present study, revealing that the proposed clinical-immune signature is a promising risk score for predicting the prognosis of HCC.


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