scholarly journals Identification of a ferroptosis-related gene signature (FRGS) for predicting clinical outcome in lung adenocarcinoma

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11233
Author(s):  
Sheng Wang ◽  
Chunlei Wu ◽  
Dehua Ma ◽  
Quanteng Hu

Background Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common pathological subtype of lung cancer. Ferroptosis, an oxidative, iron-dependent form of necrotic cell death, is highly associated with tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, the prognostic value of ferroptosis progress in LUAD was still rarely be investigated. Methods Herein, we collected three mRNA expression profiles and 85 ferroptosis-related genes from public databases. The “limma” package was used to identify ferroptosis-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Univariate Cox regression analysis and LASSO regression analysis were applied to screen and develop a ferroptosis-related gene signature (FRGS) and a formula to calculate the risk score. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was implemented to determine independent prognostic predictors of overall survival (OS). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and calibration plot were used to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the FRGS and nomogram. Results We developed a FRGS with five genes (CYBB, CISD1, FADD, SAT2, VDAC2). The AUC of the FRGS in TCGA cohort was 0.777 at 1-year, 0.721 at 3-year and 0.725 at 5-year, significantly superior to the AUC of TNM stage (1-year: 0.701, 3-year: 0.691, 5-year: 0.686). A similar phenomenon was observed in GEO cohort 1 and 2. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicted TNM stage and risk score were independent prognostic predictors. Finally, we built a nomogram with TNM stage and FRGS, the AUCs of which markedly higher than that of FRGS or TNM stage alone. Conclusion We constructed a prognostic FRGS with five ferroptosis-related genes and a nomogram for predicting the 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rate of LUAD patients, which may provide a new understanding of the prognostic value of ferroptosis progress in LUAD and will benefit prognosis assessment of LUAD patients.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunlei Wu ◽  
Quanteng Hu ◽  
Dehua Ma

AbstractLung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the main pathological subtype of Non-small cell lung cancer. We downloaded the gene expression profile and immune-related gene set from the TCGA and ImmPort database, respectively, to establish immune-related gene pairs (IRGPs). Then, IRGPs were subjected to univariate Cox regression analysis, LASSO regression analysis, and multivariable Cox regression analysis to screen and develop an IRGPs signature. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was applied for evaluating the predicting accuracy of this signature by calculating the area under ROC (AUC) and data from the GEO set was used to validate this signature. The relationship of 22 tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) to the immune risk score was also investigated. An IRGPs signature with 8 IRGPs was constructed. The AUC for 1- and 3-year overall survival in the TCGA set was 0.867 and 0.870, respectively. Similar results were observed in the AUCs of GEO set 1, 2 and 3 (GEO set 1 [1-year: 0.819; 3-year: 0.803]; GEO set 2 [1-year: 0.834; 3-year: 0.870]; GEO set 3 [1-year: 0.955; 3-year: 0.827]). Survival analysis demonstrated high-risk LUAD patients exhibited poorer prognosis. The multivariable Cox regression indicated that the risk score was an independent prognostic factor. The immune risk score was highly associated with several TIICs (Plasma cells, memory B cells, resting memory CD4 T cells, and activated NK cells). We developed a novel IRGPs signature for predicting 1- and 3- year overall survival in LUAD, which would be helpful for prognosis assessment of LUAD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Zhu ◽  
Liqun Gu ◽  
Mianfeng Yao ◽  
Jiang Li ◽  
Changyun Fang

The prognosis and immunotherapy response rates are unfavorable in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The tumor microenvironment is associated with tumor prognosis and progression, and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We obtained differentially expressed immune-related genes from OSCC mRNA data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Overall survival-related risk signature was constructed by univariate Cox regression analysis and LASSO Cox regression analysis. The prognostic performance was validated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and Kaplan–Meier survival curves in the TCGA and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. The risk score was confirmed to be an independent prognostic factor and a nomogram was built to quantify the risk of outcome for each patient. Furthermore, a negative correlation was observed between the risk score and the infiltration rate of immune cells, as well as the expression of immunostimulatory and immunosuppressive molecules. Functional enrichment analysis between different risk score subtypes detected multiple immune-related biological processes, metabolic pathways, and cancer-related pathways. Thus, the immune-related gene signature can predict overall survival and contribute to the personalized management of OSCC patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiqi Zhu ◽  
Huishan Tao ◽  
Wenyi Lin ◽  
Liang Tang ◽  
Yu Hu

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematopoietic malignancy characterized by highly heterogeneous molecular lesions and cytogenetic abnormalities. Immune disorders in AML and impaired immune cell function have been found to be associated with abnormal karyotypes in AML patients. Immunotherapy has become an alternative therapeutic method that can improve the outcomes of AML patients. For solid tumors, the expression patterns of genes associated with the immune microenvironment provide valuable prognostic information. However, the prognostic roles of immune genes in AML have not been studied as yet. In this study, we identified 136 immune-related genes associated with overall survival in AML patients through a univariate Cox regression analysis using data from TCGA-AML and GTEx datasets. Next, we selected 24 hub genes from among the 136 genes based on the PPI network analysis. The 24 immune-related hub genes further underwent multivariate Cox regression analysis and LASSO regression analysis. Finally, a 6 immune-related gene signature was constructed to predict the prognosis of AML patients. The function of the hub IRGs and the relationships between hub IRGs and transcriptional factors were investigated. We found that higher levels of expression of CSK, MMP7, PSMA7, PDCD1, IKBKG, and ISG15 were associated with an unfavorable prognosis of AML patients. Meanwhile, patients in the TCGA-AML datasets were divided into a high risk score group and a low risk score group, based on the median risk score value. Patients in the high risk group tended to show poorer prognosis [P = 0.00019, HR = 1.89 (1.26–2.83)]. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.6643. Multivariate Cox Regression assay confirmed that the 6 IRG signature was an independent prognostic factor for AML. The prognostic role of the immune related-gene signature was further validated using an independent AML dataset, GSE37642. In addition, patients in the high risk score group in the TCGA dataset were found to be of an advanced age, IDH mutation, and M5 FAB category. These results suggested that the proposed immune related-gene signature may serve as a potential prognostic tool for AML patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingzhou Guo ◽  
Hongliang Zhang ◽  
Jinliang Wang ◽  
Rilige Wu ◽  
Junyan Zhang ◽  
...  

BackgroundN6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification is vital for cancers because methylation can alter gene expression and even affect some functional modification. Our study aimed to analyze m6A RNA methylation regulators and m6A-related genes to understand the prognosis of early lung adenocarcinoma.MethodsThe relevant datasets were utilized to analyze 21 m6A RNA methylation regulators and 5,486 m6A-related genes in m6Avar. Univariate Cox regression analysis, random survival forest analysis, Kaplan–Meier analysis, Chi-square analysis, and multivariate cox analysis were carried out on the datasets, and a risk prognostic model based on three feature genes was constructed.ResultsRespectively, we treated GSE31210 (n = 226) as the training set, GSE50081 (n = 128) and TCGA data (n = 400) as the test set. By performing univariable cox regression analysis and random survival forest algorithm in the training group, 218 genes were significant and three prognosis-related genes (ZCRB1, ADH1C, and YTHDC2) were screened out, which could divide LUAD patients into low and high-risk group (P < 0.0001). The predictive efficacy of the model was confirmed in the test group GSE50081 (P = 0.0018) and the TCGA datasets (P = 0.014). Multivariable cox manifested that the three-gene signature was an independent risk factor in LUAD. Furthermore, genes in the signature were also externally validated using the online database. Moreover, YTHDC2 was the important gene in the risk score model and played a vital role in readers of m6A methylation.ConclusionThe findings of this study suggested that associated with m6A RNA methylation regulators and m6A-related genes, the three-gene signature was a reliable prognostic indicator for LUAD patients, indicating a clinical application prospect to serve as a potential therapeutic target.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingchao Liu ◽  
Hong Ma ◽  
Lingfeng Meng ◽  
Xiaodong Liu ◽  
Zhengtong Lv ◽  
...  

Purpose: To identify whether ferroptosis-related genes play predictive roles in bladder cancer patients and to develop a ferroptosis-related gene signature to predict overall survival outcomes.Materials and Methods: We downloaded the mRNA expression files and clinical data of 256 bladder samples (188 bladder tumour and 68 nontumour samples) from the GEO database and 430 bladder samples (411 bladder tumour and 19 nontumour samples) from the TCGA database. A multigene signature based on prognostic ferroptosis-related genes was constructed by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression analysis in the GEO cohort. The TCGA cohort was used to validate the ferroptosis-related gene signature. Next, functional enrichment analysis, including both Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and Gene Ontology analyses, was performed to elucidate the mechanism underlying the signature. The ssGSEA scores of 16 immune cells and 13 immune-related pathway activities between the high-risk and low-risk groups were also analysed in our study.Results: Thirty-three (67.3%) ferroptosis-related genes were differentially expressed between bladder tumour samples and nontumour samples in the GEO cohort. The intersection of prognostic ferroptosis-related genes and differentially expressed genes identified four prognostic targets, including ALOX5, FANCD2, HMGCR and FADS2. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression successfully built a 4-gene signature: risk score value = esum (each gene’s normalized expression * each gene’s coefficient). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed in both the GEO and TCGA cohorts to test the independent prognostic value of the 4-gene risk signature. Multivariate Cox regression analysis in the GEO cohort identified age (p < 0.001), grade (p = 0.129) and risk score (p = 0.016) as independent prognostic predictors for overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis in the TCGA cohort also identified age (p = 0.002), stage (p < 0.001) and risk score (p = 0.006) as independent prognostic predictors for overall survival. The type II IFN response was determined to be significantly weakened in the high-risk group in both the GEO and TCGA cohorts.Conclusion: We successfully built a ferroptosis-related gene signature of significant predictive value for bladder cancer. These results suggest a novel research direction for targeted therapy of bladder cancer in the future.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guichuan Huang ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Ling Gong ◽  
Yi Huang ◽  
Daishun Liu

Abstract Background Lung cancer is one of the most lethal and most prevalent malignant tumors worldwide, and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is one of the major histological subtypes. Although numerous biomarkers have been found to be associated with prognosis in LUSC, the prediction effect of a single gene biomarker is insufficient, especially for glycolysis-related genes. Therefore, we aimed to develop a novel glycolysis-related gene signature to predict survival in patients with LUSC. Methods The mRNA expression files and LUSC clinical information were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Results Based on Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), we found 5 glycolysis-related gene sets that were significantly enriched in LUSC tissues. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional regression models were performed to choose prognostic-related gene signatures. Based on a Cox proportional regression model, a risk score for a three-gene signature (HKDC1, ALDH7A1, and MDH1) was established to divide patients into high-risk and low-risk subgroups. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the risk score for this three-gene signature can be used as an independent prognostic indicator in LUSC. Additionally, based on the cBioPortal database, the rate of genomic alterations in the HKDC1, ALDH7A1, and MDH1 genes were 1.9, 1.1, and 5% in LUSC patients, respectively. Conclusion A glycolysis-based three-gene signature could serve as a novel biomarker in predicting the prognosis of patients with LUSC and it also provides additional gene targets that can be used to cure LUSC patients.


Author(s):  
Yongmei Wang ◽  
Guimin Zhang ◽  
Ruixian Wang

Background: This study aims to explore the prognostic values of CT83 and CT83-related genes in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Methods: We downloaded the mRNA profiles of 513 LUAD patients (RNA sequencing data) and 246 NSCLC patients (Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array) from TCGA and GEO databases. According to the median expression of CT83, the TCGA samples were divided into high and low expression groups, and differential expression analysis between them was performed. Functional enrichment analysis of differential expression genes (DEGs) was conducted. Univariate Cox regression analysis and LASSO Cox regression analysis were performed to screen the optimal prognostic DEGs. Then we established the prognostic model. A Nomogram model was constructed to predict the overall survival (OS) probability of LUAD patients. Results: CT83 expression was significantly correlated to the prognosis of LUAD patients. A total of 59 DEGs were identified, and a predictive model was constructed based on six optimal CT83-related DEGs, including CPS1, RHOV, TNNT1, FAM83A, IGF2BP1, and GRIN2A, could effectively predict the prognosis of LUAD patients. The nomogram could reliably predict the OS of LUAD patients. Moreover, the six important immune checkpoints (CTLA4, PD1, IDO1, TDO2, LAG3, and TIGIT) were closely correlated with the Risk Score, which was also differentially expressed between the LUAD samples with high and low-Risk Scores, suggesting that the poor prognosis of LUAD patients with high-Risk Score might be due to the immunosuppressive microenvironments. Conclusion: A prognostic model based on six optimal CT83 related genes could effectively predict the prognosis of LUAD patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 153303382110414
Author(s):  
Xiaoyong Li ◽  
Jiaqong Lin ◽  
Yuguo pan ◽  
Peng Cui ◽  
Jintang Xia

Background: Liver progenitor cells (LPCs) play significant roles in the development and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, no studies on the value of LPC-related genes for evaluating HCC prognosis exist. We developed a gene signature of LPC-related genes for prognostication in HCC. Methods: To identify LPC-related genes, we analyzed mRNA expression arrays from a dataset (GSE57812 & GSE 37071) containing LPCs, mature hepatocytes, and embryonic stem cell samples. HCC RNA-Seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were used to explore the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to prognosis through DEG analysis and univariate Cox regression analysis. Lasso and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to construct the LPC-related gene prognostic model in the TCGA training dataset. This model was validated in the TCGA testing set and an external dataset (International Cancer Genome Consortium [ICGC] dataset). Finally, we investigated the relationship between this prognostic model with tumor-node-metastasis stage, tumor grade, and vascular invasion of HCC. Results: Overall, 1770 genes were identified as LPC-related genes, of which 92 genes were identified as DEGs in HCC tissues compared with normal tissues. Furthermore, we randomly assigned patients from the TCGA dataset to the training and testing cohorts. Twenty-six DEGs correlated with overall survival (OS) in the univariate Cox regression analysis. Lasso and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed in the TCGA training set, and a 3-gene signature was constructed to stratify patients into 2 risk groups: high-risk and low-risk. Patients in the high-risk group had significantly lower OS than those in the low-risk group. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis confirmed the signature's predictive capacity. Moreover, the risk score was confirmed to be an independent predictor for patients with HCC. Conclusion: We demonstrated that the LPC-related gene signature can be used for prognostication in HCC. Thus, targeting LPCs may serve as a therapeutic alternative for HCC.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu-gang Hu ◽  
De-min Jiao ◽  
You-liang Si ◽  
Jun Chen ◽  
Xia-li Tang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Tobacco exposure is the most important risk factor for the occurrence and death of lung cancer. Fibrinogen beta chain (FGB), the most abundant coagulation factor in plasma, is putatively involved in tumor progression. This study aimed to evaluate the expression pattern and prognostic value of FGB in lung adenocarcinoma with tobacco exposure. Methods: FGB expression in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and corresponding normal lung tissues was compared in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Stratified analysis was conducted to investigate the expression of FGB in LUAD patients with different tobacco exposure. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox-regression analysis were performed to evaluate the prognostic significance of FGB. The same survival analyses were conducted in the KM plotter database to validate the prognostic value of FGB. Results: FGB expression was significantly increased in LUAD tissues than in normal tissues (P<0.001). The FGB expression in smoker group was higher than those in non-smoker group (P<0.001). High FGB expression was associated with advanced N stage (P=0.033) and TNM stage (P=0.046). The smoker group possessed higher level of FGB both in LUAD patients without (P=0.003) or (P =0.045) with lymph node metastasis. However, in early TNM stages, the smoker group showed elevated expression of FGB compared with non-smoker group (P=0.0004), and in advanced TNM stages, there was no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.350). In survival analyses, patients with high FGB expression had remarkably worse overall survival (P=0.007) and progression-free survival ((P=0.007) than those with low FGB expression. In smoker group, high level of FGB expression predicted worse OS (P=0.003) and PFS (P=0.029). Cox-regression analysis indicated that FGB was an independent prognostic factor for LUAD patients’ OS (HR= 1.616, P=0.017) and PFS (HR= 1.710, P=0.028). In smoking group, FGB also served as a promising prognostic biomarker for OS (HR= 1.806, P=0.027) and PFS (HR= 2.181, P=0.013). Similar survival curves were generated in the KM plotter cohort. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that elevated expression of FGB may identify an aggressive subgroup in LUAD with tobacco exposure and serve as an independent prognostic indicator in these patients.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruihua Fang ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Jing Liao ◽  
Jierong Luo ◽  
Chenchen Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the most frequent subtype of head and neck cancer, continues to have a poor prognosis with no improvement. Growing evidence has demonstrated that the immune system plays a crucial role in the development and progression of HNSCC. The goal of our study was to develop an immune-related signature for accurately predicting the survival of HNSCC patients. Methods: Gene expression profiles were established from a total of 546 HNSCC and normal tissues to establish a training set and 83 HNSCC tissues for a validation set. Differentially expressed prognostic immune genes were identified by univariate Cox regression analysis and a corresponding network of differentially expressed transcription factors (TFs) were identified using Cytoscape. The immune-related gene signature was established and validated by univariate Cox regression analysis, least absolute shrinkage and selector operation (LASSO), and multivariate Cox regression analyses. In addition, the prognostic value of the immune-related signature was analyzed by survival and Cox regression analysis. Finally, the correlation between the immune-related signature and the immune microenvironment was established.Results: In this study, the TF-mediated network revealed that Foxp3 plays a central role in the regulatory mechanism of most immune genes. A prognostic signature based on 10 immune-related genes, which divided patients into high and low risk groups, was developed and successfully validated using two independent databases. Our prognostic signature was significantly related to worse survival and predicted prognosis in patients with different clinicopathological factors. A nomogram including clinical characteristics was also constructed for accurate prediction. Furthermore, it was determined that our prognostic signature may act as an independent factor for predicting the survival of HNSCC patients. ROC analysis also revealed that our signature had superior predictive value compared with TNM stage. As for the immune microenvironment, our signature showed a positive correlation with activated mast cells and M0 macrophages, a negative correlation with Tregs, and immune checkpoint molecules PD-1 and CLTA-4. Conclusions: Our study established an immune-related gene signature, which not only provides a promising biomarker for survival prediction, but may be evaluated as an indicator for personalized immunotherapy in patients with HNSCC.


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