A Prognostic Ferroptosis-Related lncRNA Model Associated With Immune Infiltration in Colon Cancer

Abstract

Colon cancer (CC) is a common malignant tumor worldwide, and ferroptosis plays a vital role in the pathology and progression of CC. Effective prognostic tools are required to guide clinical decision-making in CC. In our study, gene expression and clinical data of CC were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. We identified the differentially expressed ferroptosis-related lncRNAs using the differential expression and gene co-expression analysis. Then, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify the effective ferroptosis-related lncRNAs for constructing the prognostic model for CC. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was conducted to explore the functional enrichment analysis. CIBERSORT and single-sample GSEA were performed to investigate the association between our model and the immune microenvironment. Finally, three ferroptosis-related lncRNAs (XXbac-B476C20.9, TP73-AS1, and SNHG15) were identified to construct the prognostic model. The results of the validation showed that our model was effective in predicting the prognosis of CC patients, which also was an independent prognostic factor for CC. The GSEA analysis showed that several ferroptosis-related pathways were significantly enriched in the low-risk group. Immune infiltration analysis suggested that the level of immune cell infiltration was significantly higher in the high-risk group than that in the low-risk group. In summary, we established a prognostic model based on the ferroptosis-related lncRNAs, which could provide clinical guidance for future laboratory and clinical research on CC.

Progress of ferroptosis in gastrointestinal tumors

“…Ferroptosis-related genes are closely related to the treatment and prognosis of CRC. By analyzing the expression and clinical characteristics of lncRNA in TCGA-COAD and GEO databases, three differentially expressed ferroptosis-related lncRNAs (XXbac-B476C20.9, TP73-AS1 and SNHG15) were identified as biomarkers to establish a prognostic model of CC patients [33] and complete the treatment system. Han et al [34] explored the transcriptome profile of lncRNA in primary CRC tissues and corresponding paired adjacent non-tumor tissues by RNA-seq, and found that LINC00239 was significantly overexpressed in colorectal cancer tissues.…”

Exploring the prognostic significance of iron death‑related lncRNAs in colorectal cancer: A systematic review and meta‑analysis

“…Ferroptosis, identified as a unique form of non-apoptotic and non-necrotic cell death, is considered a potential therapeutic target in several malignancies (13). The aberrant expression and dysfunction of iron death-related lncRNAs have been associated with prognosis, tumor progression and metastasis in colorectal cancer, suggesting their potential as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets (14)(15)(16). Evidence has shown that iron death-related lncRNAs have specific expression patterns in colorectal cancer tissue and are closely associated with disease progression and prognosis (11,12).…”

“…Evidence has shown that iron death-related lncRNAs have specific expression patterns in colorectal cancer tissue and are closely associated with disease progression and prognosis (11,12). However, despite the increasing volume of research, the exact molecular mechanisms, biological functions and associations with clinical features of iron death-related lncRNAs in colorectal cancer are still controversial (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20).…”