Heliyon (Nov 2024)
Pan-cancer landscape of disulfidptosis across human tumors
Abstract
Objective: Disulfidptosis is a newly discovered disulfide stress-induced cell death form. Clinical significance and biological mechanisms of disulfidptosis in human cancers need to be further elucidated. Thus, this study was designed to characterize pan-cancer landscape of disulfidptosis across human tumors. Methods: Multi-omics features (transcriptomics, genomics, and DNA methylation) of disulfidptosis genes were investigated in TCGA pan-cancer cohorts. A disulfidptosis score system was defined across human tumors via ssGSEA. The activity of classical oncogenic pathways and hallmarks of cancer as well as the infiltration of immunocyte subpopulations were estimated, respectively. Drug sensitivity was inferred, and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) response was evaluated in an independent cohort IMvigor210. ACHN, CAL-27, and NCI-H23 cells were transiently transfected with GYS1 siRNAs, and cell apoptosis and proliferation were measured through TUNEL and EdU assays, respectively. Results: Aberrant mRNA expression and DNA methylation of disulfidptosis genes as well as their genomic alterations were found in human tumors. The disulfidptosis score was utilized for quantifying the activity of disulfidptosis, which enabled to estimate patient prognosis. The disulfidptosis score presented positive correlations to angiogenesis and EMT, indicating the role of disulfidptosis in mediating tumor malignant features. Moreover, the score was negatively linked with infiltrating immune and stromal cells in the immune microenvironment. In the ICB cohort, shorter survival time was observed in patients with high disulfidptosis score, indicating the potential of disulfidptosis score in influencing clinical benefits from ICB. Additionally, tumors with low disulfidptosis score exhibited higher sensitivity to a few small molecular compounds, e.g., Sabutoclax, PRIMA-1MET, BIBR-1532, and Elephantin. Knockdown of disulfidptosis gene GYS1 effectively hindered tumor progression. Conclusion: Collectively, our findings depict a pan-cancer map of disulfidptosis to inform functional and therapeutic research.
