AUTHOR=Liu Jun , Gu Liming , Zhang Dangui , Li Wenli
TITLE=Determining the Prognostic Value of Spliceosome-Related Genes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences
VOLUME=9
YEAR=2022
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2022.759792
DOI=10.3389/fmolb.2022.759792
ISSN=2296-889X
ABSTRACT=Background: The spliceosome plays an important role in mRNA alternative splicing and is aberrantly expressed in several tumors. However, the potential roles of spliceosome-related genes in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain poorly understood.
Materials and Methods: Patient data were acquired from public databases. Expression differences and survival analyses were used to assess the importance of spliceosome-related genes in HCC prognosis. To explore the potential regulatory mechanisms of these genes, a protein-protein interaction network was constructed and screened using univariate and multivariate Cox regression and random forest analyses. This was used to create a five-gene prognostic model. The prognostic value and predictive power of the five-gene signature were assessed using the Kaplan-Meier and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic analyses in the training set. These results were further validated in an independent external set. To facilitate clinical application, a nomogram was prepared to predict the overall survival of HCC patients. The relative expression of five genes was detected using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
Results: The analysis revealed that LSM1-7, SNRPB, SNRPD1-3, SNRPE, SNRPF, SNRPG, and SNRPN could be used as prognostic biomarkers in HCC patients. Moreover, the five-gene risk model could clearly distinguish between the high-and low-risk groups. Furthermore, the risk model was associated with the tumor mutation burden, immune cell infiltration of CD8+ T cells, natural killer T cells, M2 macrophages, and immune checkpoint inhibitors, which also demonstrated the predictive efficacy of this risk model in HCC immunotherapy.
Conclusion: Spliceosome-related genes and the five-gene signature could serve as novel prognostic biomarkers for HCC patients, aiding clinical patient monitoring and follow-up.