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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.
Sec. Epigenomics and Epigenetics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1363197
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advancements in RNA-based and targeted Therapeutics View all articles

Identification of prognostic risk model based on plasma cell markers in hepatocellular carcinoma through single-cell sequencing analysis

Provisionally accepted
Yuanqi Li Yuanqi Li 1Hao Huang Hao Huang 1Qi Wang Qi Wang 1Xiao Zheng Xiao Zheng 1Yi Zhou Yi Zhou 1Xiangyin Kong Xiangyin Kong 2Tao Huang Tao Huang 2Jinping Zhang Jinping Zhang 3You Zhou You Zhou 1*
  • 1 First People's Hospital of Changzhou, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai, Shanxi Province, China
  • 3 Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a substantial global health burden. Tumorinfiltrating B lymphocytes (TIL-Bs) contribute to tumor progression and significantly impact the efficacy of tumor therapy. However, the characteristics of TIL-Bs in HCC and their effect on HCC therapy remain elusive. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) was applied to investigate the heterogeneity, cellular differentiation and cell-cell communication of TIL-Bs in HCC. Further, the Cancer Genome Atlas-liver hepatocellular carcinoma (TCGA-LIHC) and liver cancer institutes (LCI) cohorts were applied to construct and validate the plasma cell marker-based prognostic risk model. The relationship between the prognostic risk model and the responsiveness of immunotherapy and chemotherapy in patients with HCC were estimated by OncoPredict and tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) algorithm. Finally, we established nomogram and calibration curves to evaluate the precision of the risk score in predicating survival probability. Our data identified five subtypes of TIL-Bs in HCC, each exhibiting varying levels of infiltration in tumor tissues. The interactions between TIL-Bs and other cell types contributed to shaping distinct tumor microenvironments (TME). Moreover, we found that TIL-Bs subtypes had disparate prognostic values in HCC patients. The prognostic risk model demonstrated exceptional predictive accuracy for overall survival and exhibited varying sensitivities to immunotherapy and chemotherapy among patients with HCC. Our data demonstrated that the risk score stood as an independent prognostic predictor and the nomogram results further affirmed its strong prognostic capability. This study reveals the heterogeneity of TIL-Bs and provides a prognostic risk model based on plasma cell markers in HCC, which could prove valuable in predicting prognosis and guiding the choice of suitable therapies for patients with HCC.

    Keywords: single-cell RNA sequencing, RNA, tumor-infiltrating B lymphocytes, Plasma Cells, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Prognostic risk model, Therapeutics

    Received: 30 Dec 2023; Accepted: 02 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Huang, Wang, Zheng, Zhou, Kong, Huang, Zhang and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: You Zhou, First People's Hospital of Changzhou, Changzhou, 213000, Jiangsu Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.