scholarly journals Establishment and Validation of a Genetic Label Associated With M2 Macrophage Infiltration to Predict Survival in Patients With Colon Cancer and to Assist in Immunotherapy

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyang Xu ◽  
Ziqi Peng ◽  
Guanyu Yan ◽  
Ningning Wang ◽  
Moye Chen ◽  
...  

BackgroundColon cancer is a malignant tumor with high morbidity and mortality. Researchers have tried to interpret it from different perspectives and divided it into different subtypes to facilitate individualized treatment. With the rise in the use of immunotherapy, its value in the field of tumor has begun to emerge. From the perspective of immune infiltration, this study classified colon cancer according to the infiltration of M2 macrophages in patients with colon cancer and further explored the same.MethodsCibersort algorithm was used to analyze the level of immune cell infiltration in patients with colon cancer in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), Consensus Clustering analysis, Lasso analysis, and univariate Kaplan–Meier analysis were used to screen and verify the hub genes associated with M2 macrophages. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to establish the M2 macrophage-related score (M2I Score). The correlation between M2I Score and somatic cell variation and microsatellite instability (MSI) were analyzed. Furthermore, the correlation between M2 macrophage score and differences in immunotherapy sensitivity was also explored.ResultsM2 macrophage infiltration was associated with poor prognosis. Four hub genes (ANKS4B, CTSD, TIMP1, and ZNF703) were identified as the progression-related genes associated with M2 macrophages. A stable and accurate M2I Score for M2 macrophages used in colon adenocarcinoma was determined based on four hub genes. The M2I Score was positively correlated with the tumor mutation load (TMB). The M2I Score of the group with high instability of microsatellites was higher than that of the group with low instability of microsatellites and microsatellite-stable group. Combined with the Cancer Immunome Atlas database, we concluded that patients with high M2I Scores were more sensitive to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors and PD-1 inhibitors combined with cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitors. The low-rating group may have better efficacy without immune checkpoint inhibitors or with CTLA4 inhibitors alone.ConclusionFour prognostic hub genes associated with M2 macrophages were screened to establish the M2I Score. Patients were divided into two subgroups: high M2I Score group and low M2I Score group. TMB, MSI, and sensitivity to immunotherapy were higher in the high-rated group. PD-1 inhibitors or PD-1 combined with CTLA-4 inhibitors are preferred for patients in the high-rated group who are more sensitive to immunotherapy.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyang Xu ◽  
Ziqi Peng ◽  
Guanyu Yan ◽  
Ningning Wang ◽  
Moye Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Colon cancer is a kind of malignant tumor with high morbidity and mortality. Researchers have tried to interpret it from different perspectives and divide it into different subtypes in order to achieve individualized treatment. With the rise of immunotherapy, its value in the field of tumor has initially emerged. Based on the above background, from the perspective of immune infiltration, this study classified colon cancer according to the infiltration of M2 macrophages in patients with colon cancer and further explored it.Methods: Cibersort was used to analyze the level of immune cell infiltration in colon cancer patients in the TCGA database. WGCNA, Consensus Clustering analysis, Lasso analysis, and univariate KM analysis were used to screen and verify the hub genes associated with M2 macrophages. PCA was used to establish the M2 macrophage-related score—M2I Score. The correlation between M2I Score and somatic cell variation and microsatellite instability were analysed. Furthermore the correlation between M2 macrophage score and differences in immunotherapy sensitivity was also explored. Results: M2 macrophage infiltration was associated with poor prognosis. Four hub genes (ANKS4B, CTSD, TIMP1, and ZNF703) were selected as the progression-related genes associated with M2 macrophages. A stable and accurate M2I Score for M2 macrophages used in COAD was constructed based on four hub genes. M2I Score was positively correlated with tumor mutation load (TMB). The M2I Score of MSI-H group was higher than that of MSI-L group and MSS group. Combine with the TCIA database, we concluded that patients with a high M2I Score were more sensitive to PD-1 inhibitors and PD-1 inhibitors combined with CTLA-4 inhibitors. The low rating group may have better efficacy without immune checkpoint inhibitors or with CTLA4 inhibitors alone.Conclusion: Four prognostic hub genes associated with M2 macrophages were screened to establish the M2I Score and divided the patients into two subgroups: high M2I Score group and low M2I Score group. TMB, microsatellite instability and sensitivity to immunotherapy were higher in the high-rated group. PD-1 inhibitors or PD-1 combined with CTLA-4 inhibitors are preferred for patients in the high-rated group who are more sensitive to immunotherapy.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
lina qi ◽  
biting zhou ◽  
jiani chen ◽  
kailun xu ◽  
kailai wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: HOXC6 was the most significantly upregulated gene in right-sided colon cancer (RCC) compared to left-sided colon cancer (LCC) according to our previous study. It is known that RCC has a higher immunogenicity than LCC because much higher prevalence of MSI-H samples, however, the role of HOXC6 acted in MSI-H tumors remains poorly understood. Methods: Expression datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus databases were used to analyze the differential expression and prognostic role of HOXC6 in CRC. ELISA and qRT-PCR were performed to examine the association of HOXC6 and CCL2. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were performed to evaluate the correlation of HOXC6 and M2 macrophage infiltration. CCK8 and Transwell were used to evaluate the proliferation and migration of tumor cells in vitro.Results: HOXC6 was overexpressed in MSI-H CRC and associated with poor prognosis. Upregulation of CCL2 by HOXC6 could attract more M2 macrophage infiltration. IL6 secreted by M2 macrophages could induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumor cells by upregulating HOXC6. Overexpression of HOXC6 promoted the migration and invasion of CRC cells in vitro. Finally, inhibition of IL6/JAK pathway using ruxolitinib downregulated HOXC6 and suppressed invasion of HCT116 cells.Conclusion: Our study revealed that overexpression of HOXC6 attracted more M2 macrophage infiltration and the positive crosstalk between M2 macrophages and HOXC6-highly expressed tumor led to EMT and enhanced the migration ability of CRC, which offered a promising therapic target for treatment of MSI-H CRC.


Author(s):  
Shuyi Cen ◽  
Kun Liu ◽  
Yu Zheng ◽  
Jianzhen Shan ◽  
Chao Jing ◽  
...  

BRAF mutated colon cancer presents with poor survival, and the treatment strategies are controversial. The tumor microenvironment, which plays a key role in tumorigenesis as well as responses to treatments, of this subtype is largely unknown. In the present study, we analyzed the differences of immune microenvironments between BRAF mutated and BRAF wild-type colon cancer utilizing datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus and confirmed the findings by tissue specimens of patients. We found that BRAF mutated colon cancer had more stromal cells, more immune cell infiltration, and lower tumor purity. Many immunotherapeutic targets, including PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA-4, LAG-3, and TIM-3, were highly expressed in BRAF mutated patients. BRAF mutation was also correlated with higher proportions of neutrophils and macrophages M1, and lower proportions of plasma cells, dendritic cells resting, and T cells CD4 naïve. In conclusion, our study demonstrates a different pattern of the immune microenvironment in BRAF mutated colon cancer and provides insights into the future use of checkpoint inhibitors in this subgroup of patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Yixin Xu ◽  
Junjie Hu ◽  
Can Cao ◽  
Mili Zhang ◽  
Youdong Liu ◽  
...  

Despite dramatic responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with colon cancer (CC) harboring deficient mismatch repair (dMMR), more than half of these patients ultimately progress and experience primary or secondary drug resistance. There is no useful biomarker that is currently validated to accurately predict this resistance or stratify patients who may benefit from ICI-based immunotherapy. As hypoxic and acidic tumor microenvironment would greatly impair tumor-suppressing functions of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we sought to explore distinct immunological phenotypes by analysis of the intratumoral hypoxia state using a well-established gene signature. Based on the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (n = 88) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) (n = 49) databases of patients with CC, we found that dMMR CC patients could be separated into normoxia subgroup (NS) and hypoxia subgroup (HS) with different levels of expression of hypoxia-related genes (lower in NS group and higher in HS group) using NMF package. Tumoral parenchyma in the HS group had a relatively lower level of immune cell infiltration, particularly CD8+ T cells and M1 macrophages than the NS group, and coincided with higher expression of immune checkpoint molecules and C-X-C motif chemokines, which might be associated with ICI resistance and prognosis. Furthermore, three genes, namely, MT1E, MT2A, and MAFF, were identified to be differentially expressed between NS and HS groups in both GEO and TCGA cohorts. Based on these genes, a prognostic model with stable and valuable predicting ability has been built for clinical application. In conclusion, the varying tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME) classified by hypoxia-related genes might be closely associated with different therapeutic responses of ICIs and prognosis of dMMR CC patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 7280-7300
Author(s):  
Jie Wang ◽  
◽  
Md. Nazim Uddin ◽  
Rehana Akter ◽  
Yun Wu ◽  
...  

<abstract> <p>Colon tumor endothelial cells (CTECs) plays substantial roles to induce immune invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. Thus, identification of the CTECs-derived transcriptomes could be helpful for colon cancer diagnosis and potential therapy. </p> <sec><title>Methods</title><p> By analysis of CTECs-derived gene expression profiling dataset, we identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between CTECs and colon normal endothelial cells (CNECs). In addition, we identified the significant pathways and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network that was significantly associated with the DEGs. Furthermore, we identified hub genes whose expression was significantly associated with prognosis and immune cell infiltrations in colon cancer. Finally, we identified the significant correlations between the prognostic hub genes and immune-inhibitory markers in colon cancer. </p></sec> <sec><title>Results</title><p>We identified 362 DEGs in CTECs relative to the CNECs, including117 up-regulated genes and 245 down-regulated genes in the CTECs. In addition, we identified significantly up-regulated pathways in CTECs that were mainly involved in cancer and immune regulation. Furthermore, we identified hub genes (such as <italic>SPARC, COL1A1, COL1A2</italic> and <italic>IGFBP3</italic>) that are associated with prognosis and immune cells infiltrations in colon cancer. Interestingly, we found that prognosis-associated hub genes (<italic>SPARC, COL1A1, COL1A2</italic> and <italic>IGFBP3</italic>) are positively correlated with immune-inhibitory markers of various immunosuppressive cells, including TAM, M2 macrophage, Tregs and T cell exhaustion. Finally, our findings revealed that prognosis-associated upregulated hub genes are positively correlated with immune checkpoint markers, including PD-L1 and PD-L2 and the immunosuppressive markers including TGFB1 and TGFBR1.</p></sec> <sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>The identification of CTECs-specific transcriptomes may provide crucial insights into the colon tumor microenvironment that mediates the development of colon cancer.</p></sec> </abstract>


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 116-116
Author(s):  
Priya Jayachandran ◽  
Joanne Xiu ◽  
Shivani Soni ◽  
Richard M. Goldberg ◽  
Benjamin Adam Weinberg ◽  
...  

116 Background: Cachexia affects many cancer patients. Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) is a protein that regulates weight and the stress response of cells. The GDF15 gene encodes a ligand of TGF-beta that triggers cachexia and modulates the progression from tumorigenesis to metastasis. Inhibition of GDF15 with an antibody restored muscle mass and fat in animal models. Serum levels rise in proportion to the progression of colon cancer, predict outcome, and have been correlated with CEA. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 7607 CRC tumors profiled by Caris Life Sciences (Phoenix, AZ) from 2019 to 2020. Profiling included whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq by NovoSeq). Tumor mutational burden, mismatch repair status, and pathway genomic alterations were evaluated. QuantiSEQ was used to assess immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment. Results: GDF15 expression ranged from 0 to 593 transcripts per million (TPM) with median of 30 (IQR = 15.02). There was no association with age, sex, or primary tumor sidedness. MSI-H/dMMR tumors had higher GDF15 expression (median 37 vs 30, p = 0.0004); TMB > = 17 tumors was seen in 5.9% of bottom quartile (Q1) GDF15 expressors and 8.3% of top quartile (Q4). PDL1 IHC positivity was inversely correlated with GDF15 expression (7.1% in Q1 vs. 2.6% in Q4, p < 0.0001). Genomic alterations associated with higher GDF15 expression (Q4 vs Q1) included genes on TGF-B (SMAD2/4), PI3K (PIK3CA, MTOR), chromatin remodeling (ARID1A, KMT2C), DDR (ATM) and Wnt pathway (APC); those inversely associated included MYC CNA and TP53. Q1 tumors had higher CNA of ERBB2 and FGFR1. Relative neutrophils and NK cells in the TME increased from Q1 to Q4 (p < 0.001). There was a decrease in CD8+ T-cells and Treg cells from Q1 to Q4. Conclusions: GDF15 expression correlates with increased dMMR/MSI-H and TMB, but not with PDL1 expression. Mutations and activated pathways associated with GDF15 expression may explain increased cachexia with more aggressive disease. The association with chromatin remodeling may warrant therapies targeting histone modification and epigenetics. The increase in NK cells but decrease in CD8+ T cells in the TME with increasing GDF15 suggests approaches to treatment. Higher CD8+ lymphocyte counts correlate with PFS with immunotherapy. Anti-PD-L1 therapy reinvigorates the killing function of CD8+ T cells. The decrease in CD8+ T cells and PDL1 positivity with rising GDF15 suggests worse outcome and a lack of response to anti-PDL1 therapy. NK cell checkpoint inhibitors, CARs, and an anti-GFRAL antibody are now in clinical trials and might be utilized in high GDF15 cancers. GDF15 is emerging as a target in the treatment of obesity and cachexia and as a prognostic marker in oncology. Understanding its expression in metastatic colon cancer may reveal which patients could benefit from developing anti-GDF15 targeted therapies against cancer progression.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Yuan ◽  
Zelong Lin ◽  
Yingjun Liu ◽  
Yuchuan Jiang ◽  
Ke Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background M2-polarized tumor-associated macrophages (M2-TAMs) have been shown to correlate with the progression of various cancers, including intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). However, the interactions and mechanism between M2 macrophages and ICC are not completely clear. We aimed to clarify whether M2 macrophages promote the malignancy of ICC and its mechanism. Methods Two progressive murine models of ICC were used to evaluate the alterations in different macrophage populations and phenotypes. Furthermore, we assessed M2 macrophage infiltration in 48 human ICC and 15 normal liver samples. The protumor functions and the underlying molecular mechanisms of M2 macrophages in ICC were investigated in an in vitro coculture system. Results We found that the number of M2 macrophages was significantly higher in ICC tissues than in normal bile ducts in the two murine models. M2 macrophage infiltration was highly increased in peritumoral compared with intratumoral regions and normal liver (p < 0.01). ICC cells induced macrophages to differentiate into the M2-TAM phenotype, and coculture with these M2 macrophages promoted ICC cell proliferation, invasion and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro. Mechanistically, M2-TAM-derived IL-10 promoted the malignant properties of ICC cells through STAT3 signaling. Furthermore, blockade of IL-10/STAT3 signaling partly rescued the effects of M2 macrophages on ICC. Conclusion Our results indicated that M2-polarized macrophages induced by ICC promote tumor growth and invasiveness through IL-10/STAT3-induced EMT and might be a potential therapeutic target for ICC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Xue ◽  
Yalei Zhao ◽  
Ganglei Li ◽  
Lanjuan Li

The ALYREF protein acts as a crucial epigenetic regulator in several cancers. However, the specific expression levels and functional roles of ALYREF in cancers are largely unknown, including for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In a pan-cancer tissue analysis that included HCC, we assessed the expression of ALYREF compared to normal tissues using The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Associations between ALYREF gene expression and the clinical characteristics of HCC patient samples were assessed using the UALCAN database. Kaplan-Meier plots were performed to assess HCC patient prognosis, and the TIMER database was used to explore associations between ALYREF expression and immune-cell infiltrations. The same methods were used to assess eIF4A3 expression in HCC patient samples. In addition, ALYREF- and elF4A3-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were determined using LinkedOmics, associated protein functionalities were predicted for positively associated DEGs, and both the TargetScan and miRDB databases were used to predict potential upstream miRNAs for control of ALYREF and eIF4A3 expression. We found that ALYREF gene expression was dysregulated in several cancers and was significantly elevated in HCC patient tissue samples and HCC cell lines. The overexpression of ALYREF was significantly related to both advanced tumor-node-metastasis stages and poor HCC prognosis. Furthermore, we found that eIF4A3 expression was significantly correlated with ALYREF expression, and that upregulated eIF4A3 was significantly associated with poor HCC patient outcomes. In the protein-protein interaction network, we identified eight hub genes based on the positively associated DEGs in common between ALYREF and eIF4A3, and the high expression levels of these hub genes were positively associated with patient clinical outcomes. In addition, we identified miR-4666a-5p and miR-6124 as potential regulators of ALYREF and eIF4A3 expression. These findings suggest that increased ALYREF expression may function as a novel biomarker for both HCC diagnosis and prognosis predictions.


Author(s):  
Chen Huo ◽  
Meng-Yu Zhang ◽  
Rui Li ◽  
Ting-Ting Liu ◽  
Jian-Ping Li ◽  
...  

Increasing studies have proved that malignant tumors are associated with energy metabolism. This study was aimed to explore biological variables that impact the prognosis of patients in the glycolysis-related subgroups of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). The mRNA expression profiling and mutation data in large LUAD samples were collected from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Then, we identified the expression level and prognostic value of glycolysis-related genes, as well as the fractions of 22 immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. The differences between glycolysis activity, mutation, and immune infiltrates were discussed in these groups, respectively. Two hundred fifty-five glycolysis-related genes were identified from gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), of which 43 genes had prognostic values (p &lt; 0.05). Next, we constructed a glycolysis-related competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network which related to the survival of LUAD. Then, two subgroups of LUAD (clusters 1 and 2) were identified by applying unsupervised consensus clustering to 43 glycolysis-related genes. The survival analysis showed that the cluster 1 patients had a worse prognosis (p &lt; 0.001), and upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are interestingly enriched in malignancy-related biological processes. The differences between the two subgroups are SPTA1, KEAP1, USH2A, and KRAS among top 10 mutated signatures, which may be the underlying mechanism of grouping. Combined high tumor mutational burden (TMB) with tumor subgroups preferably predicts the prognosis of LUAD patients. The CIBERSORT algorithm results revealed that low TMB samples were concerned with increased infiltration level of memory resting CD4+ T cell (p = 0.03), resting mast cells (p = 0.044), and neutrophils (p = 0.002) in cluster 1 and high TMB samples were concerned with increased infiltration level of memory B cells, plasma cells, CD4 memory-activated T cells, macrophages M1, and activated mast cells in cluster 2, while reduced infiltration of monocytes, resting dendritic cells, and resting mast cells was captured in cluster 2. In conclusion, significant different gene expression characteristics were pooled according to the two subgroups of LUAD. The combination of subgroups, TMB and tumor-infiltrating immune cell signature, might be a novel prognostic biomarker in LUAD.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaokun Wang ◽  
Li Pang ◽  
Zuolong Liu ◽  
Xiangwei Meng

Abstract Background The change of immune cell infiltration essentially influences the process of colorectal cancer development. The infiltration of immune cells can be regulated by a variety of genes. Thus, modeling the immune microenvironment of colorectal cancer by analyzing the genes involved can be more conducive to the in-depth understanding of carcinogenesis and the progression thereof. Methods In this study, the number of stromal and immune cells in malignant tumor tissues were first estimated by using expression data (ESTIMATE) and cell-type identification with relative subsets of known RNA transcripts (CIBERSORT) to calculate the proportion of infiltrating immune cell and stromal components of colon cancer samples from the Cancer Genome Atlas database. Then the relationship between the TMN Classification and prognosis of malignant tumors was evaluated. Results By investigating differentially expressed genes using COX regression and protein-protein interaction network (PPI), the candidate hub gene serine protease inhibitor family E member 1 (SERPINE1) was found to be associated with immune cell infiltration. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) further projected the potential pathways with elevated SERPINE1 expression to carcinogenesis and immunity. CIBERSORT was subsequently utilized to investigate the relationship between the expression differences of SERPINE1 and immune cell infiltration and to identify eight immune cells associated with SERPINE1 expression. Conclusion We found that SERPINE1 plays a role in the remodeling of the colon cancer microenvironment and the infiltration of immune cells.


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