AUTHOR=Zhang Zeyu , Su Duntao , Thakur Abhimanyu , Zhang Kui , Xia Fada , Yan Yuanliang 

TITLE=Immune cell death-related lncRNA signature as a predictive factor of clinical outcomes and immune checkpoints in gastric cancer

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2023.1162995

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2023.1162995

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=Background: Immune cell death (ICD) is a type of tumor cell death that has recently been shown to activate and regulate tumor immunity. However, the roles of ICD-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in gastric cancer remain to be clarified.

Methods: We obtained 375 tumor samples from the TCGA database and randomly assigned them to training and verification queues. Lasso and Cox regression analyses were utilized to identify the ICD-related lncRNAs and establish a risk model. The changes in the immune microenvironment of the two groups were determined by examining the tumor-infiltrating immune cells.

Results: We established a signature based on nine ICD-related lncRNAs. In light of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and Kaplan-Meier (K-M) curves, the prognostic values of this risk model were verified. Multivariate regression analysis showed that the risk score was an independent risk factor for the prognosis of patients in both the training cohort (HR: 2.52, 95% CI: 1.65-3.87) and validation cohort (HR: 2.70, 95% CI: 1.54-4.8). A nomogram was developed to predict the 1, 3, and 5-year survival of patients with gastric cancer. Furthermore, this signature was linked to high levels of immunological checkpoint expression (B7-H3, VSIR).

Conclusion: ICD-related lncRNA signature could predict the immune response and prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. This prognostic signature could independently regulate the immunotherapy efficacy for patients with gastric cancer.