scholarly journals Identification and Validation of Hypoxia-Related lncRNA Signature as a Prognostic Model for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenghui Zhou ◽  
Huajun Zhang ◽  
Liqing Lu

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most general malignant tumors. Hypoxia is a critical clinical characteristic and acts as a significant part in the development and cancers’ prognosis. The prognostic value and biological functions of hypoxia-related lncRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma is little known. Thus, we aim to establish a hypoxia-related lncRNA signature to predict the HCC patients’ survival. First, we extracted the hypoxia-related genes and expression of lncRNAs from the MSigDB and TCGA database, respectively. The co-expression analysis among hypoxia-related mRNAs and lncRNAs was employed to identify hypoxia-related lncRNAs. Then, comprehensive analyses of lncRNAs expression level and survival data were applied to establish the signature. We built a prognostic signature on the foundation of the three differently expressed hypoxia-related lncRNAs. Kaplan-Meier curves indicated the low-risk group is associated with better survival. The 1−, 3−, and 5 years AUC values of the signature were 0.805, 0.672 and 0.63 respectively. The test set performed consistent outcomes. A nomogram was built grounded on the risk score and clinicopathological features. GSEA showed the immune-related pathways in high-risk group, while metabolism-related pathways in low-risk group. Besides, we found this model was correlated with the clinical features, tumor immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoints, and m6A-related genes. Finally, a novel signature based on hypoxia-related lncRNAs was established and validated for predicting HCC patients’ survival and may offer some useful information for immunotherapies.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shenglan Huang ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Dan Li ◽  
Xiaolan Lai ◽  
Lingling Zhuang ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors with poor prognosis. Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a vital role in the tumor progression of HCC. Thus, we aimed to analyze the association of TME with HCC prognosis, and construct an TME-related lncRNAs signature for predicting the prognosis of HCC patients.Methods: We firstly assessed the stromal/immune /Estimate scores within the HCC microenvironment using the ESTIMATE algorithm based on TCGA database, and its associations with survival and clinicopathological parameters were also analyzed. Then, different expression lncRNAs were filtered out according to immune/stromal scores. Cox regression was performed to built an TME-related lncRNAs risk signature. Kaplan–Meier analysis was carried out to explored the prognostic values of the risk signature. Furthermore, we explored the biological functions and immune microenvironment feathers in high- and low risk groups. Lastly, we probed the association of the risk signature with the treatment responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in HCC by comparing the immunophenoscore (IPS).Results: Stromal/immune /Estimate scores of HCC patients were obtained based on the ESTIMATE algorithm. The Kaplan-Meier curve analysis showed the high stromal/immune/ Estimate scores were significantly associated with better prognosis of the HCC patients. Then, six TME-related lncRNAs were screened for constructing the prognosis model. Kaplan-Meier survival curves suggested that HCC patients in high-risk group had worse prognosis than those with low-risk. ROC curve and Cox regression analyses demonstrated the signature could predict HCC survival exactly and independently. Function enrichment analysis revealed that some tumor- and immune-related pathways associated with HCC tumorigenesis and progression might be activated in high-risk group. We also discovered that some immune cells, which were beneficial to enhance immune responses towards cancer, were remarkably upregulated in low-risk group. Besides, there was closely correlation of immune checkmate inhibitors (ICIs) with the risk signature and the signature can be used to predict treatment response of ICIs.Conclusions: We analyzed the impact of the tumor microenvironment scores on the prognosis of patients with HCC. A novel TME-related prognostic risk signature was established, which may improve prognostic predictive accuracy and guide individualized immunotherapy for HCC patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Zhicheng Zhuang ◽  
Huajun Cai ◽  
Hexin Lin ◽  
Bingjie Guan ◽  
Yong Wu ◽  
...  

Background. Pyroptosis has been confirmed as a type of inflammatory programmed cell death in recent years. However, the prognostic role of pyroptosis in colon cancer (CC) remains unclear. Methods. Dataset TCGA-COAD which came from the TCGA portal was taken as the training cohort. GSE17538 from the GEO database was treated as validation cohorts. Differential expression genes (DEGs) between normal and tumor tissues were confirmed. Patients were classified into two subgroups according to the expression characteristics of pyroptosis-related DEGs. The LASSO regression analysis was used to build the best prognostic signature, and its reliability was validated using Kaplan–Meier, ROC, PCA, and t-SNE analyses. And a nomogram based on the multivariate Cox analysis was developed. The enrichment analysis was performed in the GO and KEGG to investigate the potential mechanism. In addition, we explored the difference in the abundance of infiltrating immune cells and immune microenvironment between high- and low-risk groups. And we also predicted the association of common immune checkpoints with risk scores. Finally, we verified the expression of the pyroptosis-related hub gene at the protein level by immunohistochemistry. Results. A total of 23 pyroptosis-related DEGs were identified in the TCGA cohort. Patients were classified into two molecular clusters (MC) based on DEGs. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis indicated that patients with MC1 represented significantly poorer OS than patients with MC2. 13 overall survival- (OS-) related DEGs in MCs were used to construct the prognostic signature. Patients in the high-risk group exhibited poorer OS compared to those in the low-risk group. Combined with the clinical features, the risk score was found to be an independent prognostic factor of CC patients. The above results are verified in the external dataset GSE17538. A nomogram was established and showed excellent performance. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses indicated that the varied prognostic performance between high- and low-risk groups may be related to the immune response mediated by local inflammation. Further analysis showed that the high-risk group has stronger immune cell infiltration and lower tumor purity than the low-risk group. Through the correlation between risk score and immune checkpoint expression, T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (TIM-3) was predicted as a potential therapeutic target for the high-risk group. Conclusion. The 13-gene signature was associated with OS, immune cells, tumor purity, and immune checkpoints in CC patients, and it could provide the basis for immunotherapy and predicting prognosis and help clinicians make decisions for individualized treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyu Gu ◽  
Jun Guan ◽  
Jia Xu ◽  
Qiuxian Zheng ◽  
Chao Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Although the tumour immune microenvironment is known to significantly influence immunotherapy outcomes, its association with changes in gene expression patterns in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) during immunotherapy and its effect on prognosis have not been clarified. Methods A total of 365 HCC samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas liver hepatocellular carcinoma (TCGA-LIHC) dataset were stratified into training datasets and verification datasets. In the training datasets, immune-related genes were analysed through univariate Cox regression analyses and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-Cox analyses to build a prognostic model. The TCGA-LIHC, GSE14520, and Imvigor210 cohorts were subjected to time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and Kaplan–Meier survival curve analyses to verify the reliability of the developed model. Finally, single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was used to study the underlying molecular mechanisms. Results Five immune-related genes (LDHA, PPAT, BFSP1, NR0B1, and PFKFB4) were identified and used to establish the prognostic model for patient response to HCC treatment. ROC curve analysis of the TCGA (training and validation sets) and GSE14520 cohorts confirmed the predictive ability of the five-gene-based model (AUC > 0.6). In addition, ROC and Kaplan–Meier analyses indicated that the model could stratify patients into a low-risk and a high-risk group, wherein the high-risk group exhibited worse prognosis and was less sensitive to immunotherapy than the low-risk group. Functional enrichment analysis predicted potential associations of the five genes with several metabolic processes and oncological signatures. Conclusions We established a novel five-gene-based prognostic model based on the tumour immune microenvironment that can predict immunotherapy efficacy in HCC patients.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11627
Author(s):  
Jiaying Liang ◽  
Yaofeng Zhi ◽  
Wenhui Deng ◽  
Weige Zhou ◽  
Xuejun Li ◽  
...  

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with high heterogeneity is one of the most frequent malignant tumors throughout the world. However, there is no research to establish a ferroptosis-related lncRNAs (FRlncRNAs) signature for the patients with HCC. Therefore, this study was designed to establish a novel FRlncRNAs signature to predict the survival of patients with HCC. Method The expression profiles of lncRNAs were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. FRlncRNAs co-expressed with ferroptosis-related genes were utilized to establish a signature. Cox regression was used to construct a novel three FRlncRNAs signature in the TCGA cohort, which was verified in the GEO validation cohort. Results Three differently expressed FRlncRNAs significantly associated with prognosis of HCC were identified, which composed a novel FRlncRNAs signature. According to the FRlncRNAs signature, the patients with HCC could be divided into low- and high-risk groups. Patients with HCC in the high-risk group displayed shorter overall survival (OS) contrasted with those in the low-risk group (P < 0.001 in TCGA cohort and P = 0.045 in GEO cohort). This signature could serve as a significantly independent predictor in Cox regression (multivariate HR > 1, P < 0.001), which was verified to a certain extent in the GEO cohort (univariate HR > 1, P < 0.05). Meanwhile, it was also a useful tool in predicting survival among each stratum of gender, age, grade, stage, and etiology,etc. This signature was connected with immune cell infiltration (i.e., Macrophage, Myeloid dendritic cell, and Neutrophil cell, etc.) and immune checkpoint blockade targets (PD-1, CTLA-4, and TIM-3). Conclusion The three FRlncRNAs might be potential therapeutic targets for patients, and their signature could be utilized for prognostic prediction in HCC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Liu ◽  
Zaoqu Liu ◽  
Lingfang Meng ◽  
Lifeng Li ◽  
Jie Gao ◽  
...  

Introduction: Fibrosis, a primary cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is intimately associated with inflammation, the tumor microenvironment (TME), and multiple carcinogenic pathways. Currently, due to widespread inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity of HCC, the efficacy of immunotherapy is limited. Seeking a stable and novel tool to predict prognosis and immunotherapy response is imperative.Methods: Using stepwise Cox regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and random survival forest algorithms, the fibrosis-associated signature (FAIS) was developed and further validated. Subsequently, comprehensive exploration was conducted to identify distinct genomic alterations, clinical features, biological functions, and immune landscapes of HCC patients.Results: The FAIS was an independent prognostic predictor of overall survival and recurrence-free survival in HCC. In parallel, the FAIS exhibited stable and accurate performance at predicting prognosis based on the evaluation of Kaplan–Meier survival curves, receiver operator characteristic curves, decision curve analysis, and Harrell’s C-index. Further investigation elucidated that the high-risk group presented an inferior prognosis with advanced clinical traits and a high mutation frequency of TP53, whereas the low-risk group was characterized by superior CD8+ T cell infiltration, a higher TIS score, and a lower TIDE score. Additionally, patients in the low-risk group might yield more benefits from immunotherapy.Conclusion: The FAIS was an excellent scoring system that could stratify HCC patients and might serve as a promising tool to guide surveillance, improve prognosis, and facilitate clinical management.


Author(s):  
Hui Huang ◽  
Si-min Ruan ◽  
Meng-fei Xian ◽  
Ming-de Li ◽  
Mei-qing Cheng ◽  
...  

Objectives: This study aimed to construct a prediction model based on contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) ultrasomics features and investigate its efficacy in predicting early recurrence (ER) of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after resection or ablation. Methods: This study retrospectively included 215 patients with primary HCC, who were divided into a developmental cohort (n = 139) and a test cohort (n = 76). Four representative images—grayscale ultrasound, arterial phase, portal venous phase and delayed phase —were extracted from each CEUS video. Ultrasomics features were extracted from tumoral and peritumoral area inside the region of interest. Logistic-regression was used to establish models, including a tumoral model, a peritumoral model and a combined model with additional clinical risk factors. The performance of the three models in predicting recurrence within 2 years was verified. Results: The combined model performed best in predicting recurrence within 2 years, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.845, while the tumoral model had an AUC of 0.810 and the peritumoral model one of 0.808. For prediction of recurrence-free survival, the 2 year cumulative recurrence rate was significant higher in the high-risk group (76.5%) than in the low-risk group (9.5%; p < 0.0001). Conclusion: These CEUS ultrasomics models, especially the combined model, had good efficacy in predicting early recurrence of HCC. The combined model has potential for individual survival assessment for HCC patients undergoing resection or ablation. Advances in knowledge: CEUS ultrasomics had high sensitivity, specificity and PPV in diagnosing early recurrence of HCC, and high efficacy in predicting early recurrence of HCC (AUC > 0.8). The combined model performed better than the tumoral ultrasomics model and peritumoral ultrasomics model in predicting recurrence within 2 years. Recurrence was more likely to occur in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group, with 2-year cumulative recurrence rates respectively 76.5% and 9.5% (p < 0.0001).


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Jianfeng Zheng ◽  
Benben Cao ◽  
Xia Zhang ◽  
Zheng Niu ◽  
Jinyi Tong

Cervical cancer (CC) is a common gynecological malignancy for which prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers are urgently needed. The signature based on immune-related lncRNAs (IRLs) of CC has never been reported. This study is aimed at establishing an IRL signature for patients with CC. A cohort of 326 CC and 21 normal tissue samples with corresponding clinical information was included in this study. Twenty-eight IRLs were collected according to the Pearson correlation analysis between the immune score and lncRNA expression ( p < 0.01 ). Four IRLs (BZRAP1-AS1, EMX2OS, ZNF667-AS1, and CTC-429P9.1) with the most significant prognostic values ( p < 0.05 ) were identified which demonstrated an ability to stratify patients into the low-risk and high-risk groups by developing a risk score model. It was observed that patients in the low-risk group showed longer overall survival (OS) than those in the high-risk group in the training set, valid set, and total set. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) for the four-IRL signature in predicting the one-, two-, and three-year survival rates was larger than 0.65. In addition, the low-risk and high-risk groups displayed different immune statuses in GSEA. These IRLs were also significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration. Our results showed that the IRL signature had a prognostic value for CC. Meanwhile, the specific mechanisms of the four IRLs in the development of CC were ascertained preliminarily.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinqin Liu ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Fei Liu ◽  
Weilin Yang ◽  
Jingjing Ding ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is associated with dismal prognosis, and prediction of the prognosis of HCC can assist the therapeutic decisions. More and more studies showed that the texture parameters of images can reflect the heterogeneity of the tumor, and may have the potential to predict the prognosis of patients with HCC after surgical resection. The aim of the study was to investigate the prognostic value of computed tomography (CT) texture parameters for patients with HCC after hepatectomy, and try to develop a radiomics nomograms by combining clinicopathological factors with radiomics signature.Methods 544 eligible patients were enrolled in the retrospective study and randomly divided into training cohort (n=381) and validation cohort (n=163). The regions of interest (ROIs) of tumor is delineated, then the corresponding texture parameters are extracted. The texture parameters were selected by using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox model in training cohort, and the radiomics score (Rad-score) was generated. According to the cut-off value of the Rad-score calculated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the patients were divided into high-risk group and low-risk group. The prognosis of the two groups was compared and validated in the validation cohort. Univariate and multivariable analyses by COX proportional hazard regression model were used to select the prognostic factors of overall survival (OS). The radiomics nomogram for OS were established based on the radiomics signature and clinicopathological factors. The Concordance index (C-index), calibration plot and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to evaluate the performance of the radiomics nomogram.Result 7 texture parameters associated with OS were selected in the training, and the radiomics signature was formulated based on the texture parameters. The patients were divided into high-risk group and low-risk group by the cut-off values of the Rad-score of OS. The 1-, 3- and 5-year OS rate was 71.0%, 45.5% and 35.5% in the high-risk group, respectively, and 91.7%, 82.1% and 78.7%, in the low-risk group, respectively, with significant difference (P <0.001). COX regression model found that Rad-score was an independent prognostic factor of OS. In addition, the radiomics nomogram was developed based on five variables: α‐fetoprotein (AFP), platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), largest tumor size, microvascular invasion (MVI) and Rad-score. The nomograms displayed good accuracy in predicting OS (C-index=0.747) in the training cohort and was confirmed in the validation cohort (C-index=0.777). The calibration plots also showed an excellent agreement between the actual and predicted survival probabilities. The DAC indicated that the radiomics nomogram showed better clinical usefulness than the clinicopathologic nomogram.Conclusion The radiomics signature is potential biomarkers of the prognosis of HCC after hepatectomy. Radiomics nomogram that integrated radiomics signature can provide more accurate estimate of OS for patients with HCC after hepatectomy.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Liu ◽  
She Tian ◽  
Zhu Li ◽  
Yongjun Gong ◽  
Hao Zhang

Abstract Background : Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common clinical malignant tumors, resulting in high mortality and poor prognosis. Studies have found that LncRNA plays an important role in the onset, metastasis and recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. The immune system plays a vital role in the development, progression, metastasis and recurrence of cancer. Therefore, immune-related lncRNA can be used as a novel biomarker to predict the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods : The transcriptome data and clinical data of HCC patients were obtained by using The Cancer Genome Atlas-Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (TCGA‑LIHC), and immune-related genes were extracted from the Molecular Signatures Database (IMMUNE RESPONSE M19817 and IMMUNE SYSTEM PROCESS M13664). By constructing the co-expression network and Cox regression analysis, 13 immune-lncRNAs was identified to predict the prognosis of HCC patients. Patients were divided into high risk group and low risk group by using the risk score formula, and the difference in overall survival (OS) between the two groups was reflected by Kaplan-Meier survival curve. The time - dependent receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to evaluate 13 immune -lncRNAs signature. Results : Through TCGA - LIHC extracted from 343 cases of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma RNA - Seq data and clinical data, 331 immune-related genes were extracted from the Molecular Signatures Database , co-expression networks and Cox regression analysis were constructed, 13 immune-lncRNAs signature was identified as biomarkers to predict the prognosis of patients. At the same time using the risk score median divided the patients into high risk and low risk groups, and through the Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis found that high-risk group of patients' overall survival (OS) less low risk group of patients. The AUC value of the ROC curve is 0.828, and principal component analysis (PCA) results showed that patients could be clearly divided into two parts by immune-lncRNAs, which provided evidence for the use of 13 immune-lncRNAs signature as prognostic markers. Conclusion : Our study identified 13 immune-lncRNAs signature that can effectively predict the prognosis of HCC patients, which may be a new prognostic indicator for predicting clinical outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenxi Wang ◽  
Na Li ◽  
Lin Shen ◽  
Qin Zhou ◽  
Zhanzhan Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose: Breast cancer (BC) has a relatively high morbidity and mortality for women. The research about BC prognosis is significant. Autophagy is an essential process for tumor progression, which could play its role with lncRNA, a kind of ncRNA that have regulatory roles in multiple tumors. Therefore, constructing an autophagy-related prognostic model for breast cancer is meaningful.Methods: We download data from the TCGA and HADb. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to excavate autophagy-related lncRNA. Then with gene expression difference analysis, etc. we explored the relationship between clinical features and the signature. We applied Cytoscape as well as KEGG, etc. to explore expression condition. And the autophagy status of our signature was investigated by GSEA, etc. We also searched the immune distinction by CIBERSORTx to extend our study and preliminarily verified our study in the end.Results: Firstly, we got an independent autophagy-related lncRNA prognostic model, by which BC patients were divided into high- and low-risk groups. We found that the OS of high-risk group is significantly lower than that of low-risk group, which was identical to those within various clinical subgroups. Then, the KEGG and GO analysis enriched several pathways including autophagy. PCA and GSEA analysis demonstrated the autophagy status. Several distinguishing immune cell types in separated groups were revealed by immunity analysis. Then the verification in the end proved the feasibility of our signature.Conclusion: In this study, we acquired an independent autophagy-related lncRNA signature involving 12 lncRNAs, which contributes to the prediction of prognosis of BC patients.


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