Development of a novel transcription factors-related prognostic signature for serous ovarian cancer

A Pyroptosis-Related LncRNA Signature for Predicting Prognosis, Immune Features and Drug Sensitivity in Ovarian Cancer

Background

Multiple studies have suggested that lncRNAs and pyroptosis play important roles in ovarian cancer (OC). However, the function of pyroptosis-related lncRNAs (PRLs) in OC is not fully understood.

Methods

Clinical information and RNA-seq data of OC patients (n = 379) were collected from TCGA database. Pearson correlation analysis and univariate Cox analysis were performed to identify prognostic PRLs, respectively. LASSO-COX regression was utilized to construct a prognostic PRLs signature. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) curve analyses and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) were used to evaluate the prognostic prediction of the signature. The association between risk score and tumor microenvironment infiltration, immunotherapy response and chemotherapy sensitivity were also analyzed. In addition, the function of TYMSOS on OC and pyroptosis was experimentally confirmed in cell lines.

Results

Firstly, 32 prognostic PRLs were identified, and a novel prognostic PRLs signature was constructed and validated. Surprisingly, the prognostic PRLs signature could solidly predict the clinical outcome of patients with OC and patients with high-risk score shown a short overall survival. GSEA results suggested that the RPLs were mainly enriched in the inflammatory response pathway, p53 pathway, TGF-β signaling and TNFα signaling. Besides, our results demonstrated that the risk score was significantly associated with patients with immune infiltration, immunotherapy response and the sensitivity of veliparib and metformin. Furthermore, the oncogene effect of TYMSOS on OC by inhibiting pyroptosis was verified by experiments.

Conclusion

This study found that the prognostic PRLs signature may serve as an efficient biomarker in predicting the prognosis, tumor microenvironment infiltration, and sensitivity of chemotherapeutic agents. TYMSOS is a potential biomarker in OC, and it might promote tumor progression by inhibiting pyroptosis.

Role of SLC31A1 in prognosis and immune infiltration in breast cancer: a novel insight

OBJECTIVE

Copper, an essential metal element for humans, plays vital functions in cancer prognosis and immunity. SLC31A1, a high-affinity copper transporter, helps regulate copper homeostasis and has been implicated in tumor prognosis through mechanisms such as drug resistance, autophagy, ferroptosis, and cuproptosis. However, the role of SLC31A1 in breast cancer (BRCA) and its association with tumor immune infiltration has not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the expression pattern of SLC31A1, its clinical significance, and its effect on tumor immune infiltration in BRCA.

METHODS

We comprehensively analyzed multiple datasets, including Gene Expression Profiling Interaction Analysis (GEPIA), Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER), UALCAN, and Kaplan-Meier (KM) plotter, to assess the expression of SLC31A1 and its prognostic value in BRCA. Additionally, TIMER and TISIDB were used to explore the correlation between SLC31A1 expression and the extent of tumor immune infiltration.

RESULTS

SLC31A1 was significantly upregulated in BRCA tissues compared to adjacent non-tumor tissues. Higher SLC31A1 expression levels were associated with poorer clinical outcome. Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that SLC31A1 served as an independent prognostic indicator. Furthermore, SLC31A1 expression showed significant associations with various immunomodulators, chemokines, chemokine receptors, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), including CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs), follicular helper T cells (Tfh), neutrophils, M2 macrophages, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), and monocytes. These findings suggest that SLC31A1 may regulate macrophage polarization and T cell exhaustion in BRCA, contributing to immune evasion and poor prognosis.

CONCLUSION

Our study underscores the importance of further research to explore the therapeutic potential of targeting SLC31A1 and to uncover its additional roles in BRCA beyond the known mechanisms of drug resistance, autophagy, ferroptosis, and cuproptosis.

Comprehensive analysis of a NAD+ metabolism-derived gene signature to predict the prognosis and immune landscape in endometrial cancer

As a crucial regulator influencing tumor progression, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is widely acknowledged. However, its role in endometrial cancer (EC) is not completely understood. In this study, we aimed to develop an NAD+metabolic-related genes (NMRGs) risk signature that could reflect the prognosis of EC patients and their responsiveness to immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases and the Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB) confirmed two distinct NMRG subtypes in EC patients using consensus clustering, and a risk score was constructed utilizing an NAD+-related prognostic signature depending on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were employed to assess the model's precision. Additionally, we used Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) to predict the biological signaling pathways that might be involved. We also explored the role of the risk score in immune cell infiltration, tumor mutation burden (TMB), immunotherapy, and chemotherapy. Our study established a prognostic risk signature based on six NMRGs, and we observed that the high-risk group was associated with a poorer prognosis. Furthermore, we identified a strong correlation between the high-risk group and several pathways, including DNA replication, cell cycle, and mismatch repair. Lastly, our findings highlighted the influence of NMRGs on the regulation of immune infiltration in EC. Therefore, this signature holds potential value in predicting the prognosis of EC patients and guiding their management, including decisions regarding immunotherapy and chemotherapy, ultimately improving the accuracy of EC patient care.

Characteristics of Ovarian Cancer Immune Cell Invasion and Bioinformatics to Predict the Effect of Immunotherapy

Recent studies have confirmed that tumor immune cell infiltration (ICI) is associated with sensitivity of ovarian cancer (OC) immunotherapy and disease progression of OC patients. However, studies related to immune infiltration in OC, has not been elucidated. Two algorithms are used to analyze the OC data in the TCGA and GEO databases. After combining the two data sets, the immune cell content of the sample was estimated by Cell-type Identification By Estimate Relative Subsets of RNA Transcripts (CIBERSORT method). An unsupervised consistent clustering algorithm was used to analyze ICI subtypes and their differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Two subgroups and three ICI gene clusters were identified by unsupervised consensus clustering algorithm. The ICI score was obtained by analyzing the gene characteristics through principal component analysis (PCA). The ICI score ranged from -15.8132 to 18.7211, which was associated with the prognosis of OC patients with immunotherapy. The Toll-like receptor pathway, B-cell receptor pathway, antigen processing and presentation pathway, NK-cell-mediated cytotoxicity pathway, and arginine-proline metabolism pathway were activated in the high ICI score group, suggesting that immune cells in the high ICI score group were activated, thus leading to a better prognosis in this group of patients. Patients with G3-G4 in the high ICI rating group were more sensitive to immunotherapy and had a better prognosis in patients with high tumor mutation burden (TMB). This study suggests that ICI scores can be used as a feasible auxiliary indicator for predicting the prognosis of patients with OC.

Biology-driven therapy advances in high-grade serous ovarian cancer

Following a period of slow progress, the completion of genome sequencing and the paradigm shift relative to the cell of origin for high grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) led to a new perspective on the biology and therapeutic solutions for this deadly cancer. Experimental models were revisited to address old questions, and improved tools were generated. Additional pathways emerging as drivers of ovarian tumorigenesis and key dependencies for therapeutic targeting, in particular, VEGF-driven angiogenesis and homologous recombination deficiency, were discovered. Molecular profiling of histological subtypes of ovarian cancer defined distinct genetic events for each entity, enabling the first attempts toward personalized treatment. Armed with this knowledge, HGSOC treatment was revised to include new agents. Among them, PARP inhibitors (PARPis) were shown to induce unprecedented improvement in clinical benefit for selected subsets of patients. Research on mechanisms of resistance to PARPis is beginning to discover vulnerabilities and point to new treatment possibilities. This Review highlights these advances, the remaining challenges, and unsolved problems in the field.

Identification and validation of an immune-related lncRNAs signature to predict the overall survival of ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal gynecological cancer in women. Studies had reported that immune-related lncRNAs signatures were valuable in predicting the survival and prognosis of patients with various cancers. In our study, the prognostic value of immune-related lncRNAs was investigated in OC patients from TCGA-RNA-seq cohort (n=378) and HG-U133_Plus_2 cohort (n=590), respectively. Pearson correlation analysis was implemented to screen the immune-related lncRNA and then univariate Cox regression analysis was performed to explore their prognostic value in OC patients. Five prognostic immune-related lncRNAs were identified as prognostic lncRNAs. Besides, they were inputted into a LASSO Cox regression to establish and validate an immune-related lncRNA prognostic signature in TCGA-RNA-Seq cohort and HG-U133_Plus_2 cohort, respectively. Based on the best cut-off value of risk score, patients were divided into high- and low-risk groups. Survival analysis suggested that patients in the high-risk group had a worse overall survival (OS) than those in the low-risk group in both cohorts. The association between clinicopathological feathers and risk score was then evaluated by using stratification analysis. Moreover, we constructed a nomogram based on risk score, age and stage, which had a strong ability to forecast the OS of the OC patients. The influence of risk score on immune infiltration and immunotherapy response were assessed and the results suggested that patients with high-risk score might recruit multiple immune cells and stromal cells, leading to facilitating immune surveillance evasive. Ultimately, we demonstrated that the risk model was associated with chemotherapy response of multiple antitumor drugs, especially for paclitaxel, metformin and veliparib, which are commonly used in treating OC patients. In conclusion, we constructed a novel immune-related lncRNA signature, which had a potential prognostic value for OC patients and might facilitate personalized counselling for immunotherapy and chemotherapy.

Identification and validation of a novel prognostic signature based on transcription factors in breast cancer by bioinformatics analysis

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer (BRCA) is the leading cause of cancer mortality among women, and it is associated with many tumor suppressors and oncogenes. There is increasing evidence that transcription factors (TFs) play vital roles in human malignancies, but TFs-based biomarkers for BRCA prognosis were still rare and necessary. This study sought to develop and validate a prognostic model based on TFs for BRCA patients.

METHODS

Differentially expressed TFs were screened from 1,109 BRCA and 113 non-tumor samples downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Univariate Cox regression analysis was used to identify TFs associated with overall survival (OS) of BRCA, and multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to establish the optimal risk model. The predictive value of the TF model was established using TCGA database and validated using a Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data set (GSE20685). A gene set enrichment analysis was conducted to identify the enriched signaling pathways in high-risk and low-risk BRCA patients. Gene Ontology (GO) function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses of the TF target genes were also conducted separately.

RESULTS

A total of 394 differentially expressed TFs were screened. A 9-TF prognostic model, comprising PAX7, POU3F2, ZIC2, WT1, ALX4, FOXJ1, SPIB, LEF1 and NFE2, was constructed and validated. Compared to those in the low-risk group, patients in the high-risk group had worse clinical outcomes (P<0.001). The areas under the curve of the prognostic model for 5-year OS were 0.722 in the training cohort and 0.651 in the testing cohort. Additionally, the risk score was an independent prediction indicator for BRCA patients both in the training cohort (HR =1.757, P<0.001) and testing cohort (HR =1.401, P=0.001). It was associated with various cancer signaling pathways. Ultimately, 9 overlapping target genes were predicted by 3 prediction nomograms. The GO and KEGG enrichment analyses of these target genes suggested that the TFs in the model may regulate the activation of some classical tumor signaling pathways to control the progression of BRCA through these target genes.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study developed and validated a novel prognostic TF model that can effectively predict 5-year OS for BRCA patients.

Comprehensive Analysis of a Novel Lipid Metabolism-Related Gene Signature for Predicting the Prognosis and Immune Landscape in Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma

Lipid metabolism is important in various cancers. However, the association between lipid metabolism and uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is still unclear. In this study, we collected clinicopathologic parameters and the expression of lipid metabolism-related genes (LMRGs) from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). A lipid metabolism-related risk model was built and verified. The risk score was developed based on 11 selected LMRGs. The expression of 11 LMRGs was confirmed by qRT-PCR in clinical samples. We found that the model was an independent prediction factor of UCEC in terms of multivariate analysis. The overall survival (OS) of low-risk group was higher than that in the high-risk group. GSEA revealed that MAPK signaling pathway, ERBB signaling pathway, ECM receptor interaction, WNT pathway, and TGF-β signaling pathway were enriched in the high-risk group. Low-risk group was characterized by high tumor mutation burden (TMB) and showed sensitive response to immunotherapy and chemotherapy. In brief, we built a lipid metabolism gene expression-based risk signature which can reflect the prognosis of UCEC patients and their response to chemotherapeutics and immune therapy.

Prognostic immunologic signatures in epithelial ovarian cancer

Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) is a deadly gynecologic malignancy in which patients frequently develop recurrent disease following initial platinum-taxane chemotherapy. Analogous to many other cancer subtypes, EOC clinical trials have centered upon immunotherapeutic approaches, most notably programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitors. While response rates to these immunotherapies in EOC patients have been low, evidence suggests that ovarian tumors are immunogenic and that immune-related genomic profiles can serve as prognostic markers. This review will discuss recent advances in the development of immune-based prognostic signatures in EOC that predict patient clinical outcomes, as well as emphasize specific research areas that need to be addressed to drive this field forward.

Identification of a glycolysis-related gene signature for survival prediction of ovarian cancer patients

BACKGROUND

Ovarian cancer (OV) is deemed the most lethal gynecological cancer in women. The aim of this study was to construct an effective gene prognostic model for predicting overall survival (OS) in patients with OV.

METHODS

The expression profiles of glycolysis-related genes (GRGs) and clinical data of patients with OV were extracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Univariate, multivariate, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression analyses were conducted, and a prognostic signature based on GRGs was constructed. The predictive ability of the signature was analyzed using training and test sets.

RESULTS

A gene risk signature based on nine GRGs (ISG20, CITED2, PYGB, IRS2, ANGPTL4, TGFBI, LHX9, PC, and DDIT4) was identified to predict the survival outcome of patients with OV. The signature showed a good prognostic ability for OV, particularly high-grade OV, in the TCGA dataset, with areas under the curve (AUC) of 0.709 and 0.762 for 3- and 5-year survival, respectively. Similar results were found in the test sets, and the AUCs of 3-, 5-year OS were 0.714 and 0.772 in the combined test set. And our signature was an independent prognostic factor. Moreover, a nomogram combining the prediction model and clinical factors was developed.

CONCLUSION

Our study established a nine-GRG risk model and nomogram to better predict OS in patients with OV. The risk model represents a promising and independent prognostic predictor for patients with OV. Moreover, our study on GRGs could offer guidance for the elucidation of underlying mechanisms in future studies.