Cuproptosis-related immune checkpoint gene signature: Prediction of prognosis and immune response for hepatocellular carcinoma

作者：Tianhao Cong, Yingen Luo, Yu Liu, Chao Yang, Hongcai Yang, Yujie Li, Jingui Li, Xiao Li · 发表于：Frontiers in Genetics · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3389/fgene.2022.1000997 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis、Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers、RNA modifications and cancer

Immune checkpoint genes (ICGs), the foundation of immunotherapy, are involved in the incidence and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Cuproptosis is characterized by copper-induced cell death, and this novel cell death pathway has piqued the interest of researchers in recent years. It is worth noting that there is little information available in the literature to determine the relationship between cuproptosis and anti-tumor immunity. We identified 39 cuproptosis-related ICGs using ICGs co-expressed with cuproptosis-related genes. A prognostic risk signature was constructed using the Cox regression and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator analysis methods. The signature was built using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma database. The TCGA and International Cancer Genome Consortium cohorts were classified into two groups; the low- and high-risk groups were determined using a prognostic signature comprised of five genes. The multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the signature could independently predict overall survival. Furthermore, the level of immune infiltration analysis revealed the robustness of the prognostic signature-immune cell infiltration relationship observed for Tregs, macrophages, helper T cells, and naive B cells. Both groups showed significant differences in immune checkpoint expression levels. The gene enrichment analysis was used for characterization, and the results revealed that enriching var...