International Journal of General Medicine (Nov 2021)
Development and Validation of an Immune-Related Gene Pairs Signature in Grade II/III Glioma
Abstract
Xu Zhang,1,* Shuai Ping,2,* Anni Wang,3 Can Li,4 Rui Zhang,5 Zimu Song,3 Caibin Gao,3 Feng Wang6 1Department of Neurosurgery, Baoding No.1 Central Hospital, Baoding, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Orthopaedics, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Neurosurgery, Chengdu Sixth People’s Hospital, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 5Ningxia Key Laboratory of Cerebrocranial Disease, Incubation Base of National Key Laboratory, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Neurosurgery, People’s Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Yinchuan, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Feng Wang Email [email protected]: Gliomas are prevalent primary intracerebral malignant tumors. Increasing evidence indicates an association between the immune signature and Grade II/III glioma prognosis. Thus, we aimed to develop an immune-related gene pair (IRGP) signature that can be used as a prognostic tool in Grade II/III glioma.Methods: The gene expression levels and clinical information of Grade II/III glioma patients were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) databases. The TCGA data were randomly divided into a training cohort (n = 249) and a validation cohort (n = 162), and a CGGA dataset served as an external validation group (n = 605). IRGPs significantly associated with prognosis were selected by Cox regression. Gene set enrichment analysis and filtration were performed with the IRGPs.Results: Within a set of 1991 immune genes, 8 IRGPs including 15 unique genes that significantly affect survival constituted a gene signature. In the validation datasets, the IRGP signature significantly stratified patients with Grade II/III glioma into low- and high-risk groups (P < 0.001), and the IRGP index was found to be an independent prognostic factor through univariate and multivariate analyses (P < 0.05). Additionally, 26 functional pathways were identified through the intersection of Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis.Conclusion: The IRGP signature demonstrated good prognostic value for Grade II/III gliomas, which may provide new insights into individual treatment for glioma patients. The IRGPs might function through the identified 26 functional pathways.Keywords: glioma, prognosis, immune-related gene pairs, TCGA, CGGA
