AUTHOR=Huang Dejing , Tang Enyu , Zhang Tianze , Xu Guangquan 

TITLE=Characteristics of Fatty Acid Metabolism in Lung Adenocarcinoma to Guide Clinical Treatment

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.916284

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2022.916284

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has extremely high morbidity and mortality rates, and its pathogenesis and treatment are still an exploratory stage. Fatty acid metabolism plays an important role in tumorigenesis, development, and immune regulation. However, the gene expression of fatty acid metabolism in patients with LUAD and its relationship with prognosis remain unclear.
Methods: In this study, we collected 309 fatty acid metabolism-related genes, used LASSO regression analysis, established an LUAD risk model based on a cancer genome map (The Cancer Genome Atlas, TCGA), divided LUAD patients into high- and low-risk groups, and further verified the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The nomogram, principal component analysis (PCA), and subject operating characteristic curve (ROC) showed that the model has the best prediction performance. ROC curve and correction plots confirmed that the nomogram had good predictive power. The differences in clinical characteristics, immune cell infiltration, chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity, and immunotherapeutic effects between high and low-risk groups were further analyzed. We also analyzed the enrichment pathway and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of different genes in high- and low-risk groups, screened out the network HUB gene, and further explored the differences between the network HUB gene and survival prognosis, clinical characteristics, gene mutation, and immune cells.
Results: Risk and stage are independent prognostic factors in LUAD patients. The high-risk group has more immune cell infiltration, is more sensitive to chemotherapy drugs, and has a poor survival prognosis. We also obtained three Hub genes, whose high expression group had a poor survival prognosis and were closely related to clinical symptoms and immune cells.
Conclusion: Our results show that the prognostic model based on fatty acid metabolism-related genes has good predictive power, and the three Hub genes may be therapeutic targets. It provides the possibility to further improve the individualized treatment of patients with lung adenocarcinoma.