Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering (Jan 2022)

Comprehensive analysis to identify DNA damage response-related lncRNA pairs as a prognostic and therapeutic biomarker in gastric cancer

  • Yuan Yang,
  • Lingshan Zhou,
  • Xi Gou ,
  • Guozhi Wu,
  • Ya Zheng,
  • Min Liu,
  • Zhaofeng Chen ,
  • Yuping Wang,
  • Rui Ji,
  • Qinghong Guo,
  • Yongning Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3934/mbe.2022026
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 1
pp. 595 – 611

Abstract

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Objective: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The identification of valuable predictive signatures to improve the prognosis of patients with GC is becoming a realistic prospect. DNA damage response-related long noncoding ribonucleic acids (drlncRNAs) play an important role in the development of cancers. However, their prognostic and therapeutic values remain sparse in gastric cancer (GC). Methods: We obtained the transcriptome data and clinical information from The Cancer Genome Atlas Stomach Adenocarcinoma (TCGA-STAD) cohort. Co-expression network analyses were performed to discover functional modules using the igaph package. Subsequently, lncRNA pairs were identified by bioinformation analysis, and prognostic pairs were determined by univariate analysis, respectively. In addition, we utilized least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) cox regression analysis to construct the risk model based on lncRNA pairs. Then, we distinguished between the high- or low- risk groups from patients with GC based on the optimal model. Finally, we reevaluated the association between risk score and overall survival, tumor immune microenvironment, specific tumor-infiltrating immune cells related biomarkers, and the sensitivity of chemotherapeutic agents. Results: 32 drlncRNA pairs were obtained, and a 17-drlncRNA pairs signature was constructed to predict the overall survival of patients with GC. The ROC was 0.797, 0.812 and 0.821 at 1, 2, 3 years, respectively. After reclassifying these patients into different risk-groups, we could differentiate between them based on negative overall survival outcome, specialized tumor immune infiltration status, higher expressed immune cell related biomarkers, and a lower chemotherapeutics sensitivity. Compared with previous models, our model showed better performance with a higher ROC value. Conclusion: The prognostic and therapeutic signature established by novel lncRNA pairs could provide promising prediction value, and guide individual treatment strategies in the future.

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