Identification and Validation of a Four-Long Non-coding RNA Signature Associated With Immune Infiltration and Prognosis in Colon Cancer

Abstract

The emerging evidence has demonstrated the critical roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as regulators in the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). However, the tumor immune infiltration-associated lncRNAs and their clinical significance in colon cancer have not yet been thoroughly investigated. This study performed an integrative analysis of lncRNA expression profiles and immune cell infiltration profiles and identified 258 immune infiltration-associated lncRNAs. Of them, four lncRNAs (AC008494.3, LINC00926, AC022034.1, and SNHG26) were significantly and independently associated with the patient’s overall survival. Finally, we developed a tumor immune infiltration-associated lncRNA signature (TIILncSig) comprising of these four lncRNAs, which can divide colon cancer patients of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) into high-risk and low-risk groups with a significantly different outcome [Hazard ratio (HR) = 2.718, 95% CI = 1.955–3.779, p < 0.001]. Prognostic performance of the TIILncSig was further validated in another independent colon cancer cohort (HR = 1.832, 95% CI = 1.045–3.21, p = 0.034). Results of multivariate Cox regression and stratification analysis demonstrated that the TIILncSig is an independent predictive factor from other clinical features (HR = 2.687, 95% CI = 1.912–3.776, p < 0.001 for TCGA cohort and HR = 1.837, 95% CI = 1.047–3.223, p = 0.034 for GSE17538 cohort). Literature analysis provided experimental evidence supporting roles of the TIILncSig in cancer carcinogenesis and progression and immune regulation. Summary, our study will help to understand the mechanisms of lncRNAs in immune regulation in the tumor microenvironment and provide novel biomarkers or targets for prognosis prediction and therapy decision-making for patients with colon cancer.

Survival Nomogram for Metastasis Colon Cancer Patients Based on SEER Database

“…However, given that the 5-year survival rate (OS) of CC is relatively high, more and more researches have investigated the influencing factors for CC prognosis. In general, the factors that affect the prognosis of CC mainly come from the tumor aspect, including the size of the tumor, the location of the tumor, and the depth of tumor infiltration ( Feng et al, 2021 ; Huang et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). Of course, distant metastasis also contributed to the reduction in the survival of CC patients ( Chang et al, 2017 ; Nakamura et al, 2021 ).…”

Comprehensive Analysis of Pyroptosis-Related Long Noncoding RNA Immune Infiltration and Prediction of Prognosis in Patients with Colon Cancer

“…Our study found a signature featuring 9-lncRNAs related to pyroptosis (SNHG26, MYOSLID, TMEM147-AS1, CCDC183-AS1, AL354836.1, LINC00174, AC023157.2, AC084125.2, and AL137782.1) and revealed that it has the ability to anticipate the prognosis of people with CC. Wang Y. and Tong H. showed that SNHG26 is closely associated with the tumour, immune microenvironment, CC, and bladder cancer [ 57 , 58 ]. MYOSLID promotes the progression of osteosarcoma through the miR-1286/RAB13 axis [ 59 ], and MYOSLID plays a key role in stomach neoplasm through the miR-29c-3p-mcl-1 axis [ 60 ], but it has not been reported in CC.…”

A novel immune-related radioresistant lncRNAs signature based model for risk stratification and prognosis prediction in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

“…This means that some basic experiments (such as rt-qPCR) should be used for practical verification to ensure that the genes of interest had sufficient expression ( Zhu et al, 2021 ). To overcome the shortcomings of the above model, new prognostic models based on the strategy of the relative expression of immune-related gene pairing were proposed, which became a mainstream bioinformatics research method ( Sun et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020 ; Wang Y. et al, 2021 ). In this study, we were inspired by the new strategy and attempted to construct a reasonable model with ir-lncRNA pairs assess the prognostic value of ir-lncRNAs.…”

“…The differential expression of these lncRNAs indicates that ir-lncRNAs had played an important role in the radioresistance of ESCC. Second, previous studies have shown that lncRNAs achieve biological functions through a variety of target genes, which may involve immune-related genes ( Wang Y. et al, 2021 ). Therefore, we further explored the differential expression of immune genes, which were not only differentially expressed in esophageal cancer tissues with different response characteristics of radiotherapy, but also correlated with the expression of immune lncRNAs, and thus could be considered as target genes of ir-lncRNAs.…”