Determining new disulfidptosis-associated lncRNA signatures pertinent to breast cancer prognosis and immunological microenvironment

Abstract

Purpose: Disulfidptosis, a novel form of cell death triggered by disulfide stress, could have significant implications in breast cancer (BC) pathogenesis. Despite this, the identification of disulfidptosis-related lncRNAs in BC remains has not been reported. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prognostic potential of disulfidptosis-associated lncRNAs in BC. Methods: RNA-seq data and clinical information of BC patients were obtained from the TCGA database. Co-expression analysis was performed to identify disulfidptosis-associated lncRNAs. Subsequently, a risk signature was developed through univariate Cox and LASSO analyses, and its predictive ability was validated. Additionally, the association between the risk signature and immune cell infiltration, immune function, tumor mutational burden (TMB）, and immune checkpoints was investigated. Finally, potential anticancer drugs associated with the risk signatures were predicted. Results: A 10-lncRNA signature was established to stratify BC patients into high-risk and low-risk groups, where the high-risk group showed an unfavorable prognosis. This signature served as an independent prognostic factor in BC patients. Notably, the two subgroups displayed distinct mutation gene profiles, and the risk score exhibited a significant correlation with TMB. Furthermore, ssGSEA and immune checkpoint analysis revealed a significant association between the predictive signature and the immune status of BC patients. Finally, 55 potential anticancer drugs associated with the signature were identified. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully established an independent prognostic signature of disulfidptosis-related lncRNAs in BC patients. This signature provides a solid basis for future investigations into the functional significance of disulfidptosis-associated lncRNAs in breast cancer.