A Novel CCR7-Related Immune Prognostic Signature for Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (LIHC) Based on Immunogenomic Profiling

Abstract

Object: Explore the specific function of CCR7 in immune mechanism of LIHC, and constructed CCR7-related immune prognostic signature (IPS) for LIHC patients.Methods: The RNA-seq data of LIHC was downloaded from TCGA dataset and the samples were divided into CCR7_H and CCR7_L group. Then, ssGSEA analysis, immune microenvironment analysis, expression level analysis of HLA genes and check point genes were conducted. The differential expression immune genes (DEIGs) were conducted and LASSO Cox was applied to construct CCR7-related IPS. A novel nomogram was constructed to predict survival rate of LIHC patients.Results: The Immune score, Stromal score and ESTAMATE score are higher in CCR_H group, while tumor purity higher in CCR_L group. In CCR7_H group, the HLA genes and immune checkpoint genes have higher expression levels. The CCR7_H group have a favorable prognosis than CCR7_L group. There are 903 DEIGs were identified. The DEIGs mainly enriched in complement activation, adaptive immune response, T cell activation, lymphocyte differentiation and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. The IPS consists of 10 genes, including GHV4-59, SCML4, AKR1B10, LINC00426, TRGC1, F2RL2, TRBV10-3, SAMD9L, SLC4A10 and ROR2. Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis showed that the IPS was an independent prognostic factor of LIHC. Conclusions: The CCR7-related IPS and nomogram were constructed and provided for LIHC patients to predict survival rate. This study provided a novel way to analyzed the prognostic effect of CCR7 expression from the perspective of immunology.