A novel pyroptosis-associated gene signature for immune status and prognosis of cutaneous melanoma

PeerJ

article

Zhengyuan Wu¹  Leilei Chen¹  Chaojie Jin¹  Jing Xu¹  Xingqun Zhang¹  Yi Yao¹ 

[1] Yuhang First People’s Hospital;The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University

关键词: Pyroptosis;    Prognosis;    Gene signature;    Immune microenvironment;    Immune status;    Drug sensitivity;    Cutaneous melanoma;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.12304

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Background Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is a life-threatening destructive malignancy. Pyroptosis significantly correlates with programmed tumor cell death and its microenvironment through active host-tumor crosstalk. However, the prognostic value of pyroptosis-associated gene signatures in CM remains unclear. Methods Gene profiles and clinical data of patients with CM were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to identify differentially expressed genes associated with pyroptosis and overall survival (OS). We constructed a prognostic gene signature using LASSO analysis, then applied immune cell infiltration scores and Kaplan-Meier, Cox, and pathway enrichment analyses to determine the roles of the gene signature in CM. A validation cohort was collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Results Four pyroptosis-associated genes were identified and incorporated into a prognostic gene signature. Integrated bioinformatics findings showed that the signature correlated with patient survival and was associated with tumor growth and metastasis. The results of Gene Set Enrichment Analysis of a risk signature indicated that several enriched pathways are associated with cancer and immunity. The risk signature for immune status significantly correlated with tumor stem cells, the immune microenvironment, immune cell infiltration and immune subtypes. The expression of four pyroptosis genes significantly correlated with the OS of patients with CM and was related to the sensitivity of cancer cells to several antitumor drugs. A signature comprising four genes associated with pyroptosis offers a novel approach to the prognosis and survival of patients with CM and will facilitate the development of individualized therapy.

【 授权许可】

CC BY