Integrative analysis of disulfidptosis and immune microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma: a putative model and immunotherapeutic strategies

Front Immunol. 2024 Jan 3:14:1294677. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1294677. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant tumor with a high rate of recurrence and m metastasis that does not respond well to current therapies and has a very poor prognosis. Disulfidptosis is a novel mode of cell death that has been analyzed as a novel therapeutic target for HCC cells.

Methods: This study integrated bulk ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing datasets, spatial transcriptomics (ST), and single-cell RNA sequencing to explore the landscape of disulfidptosis and the immune microenvironment of HCC cells.

Results: We developed a novel model to predict the prognosis of patients with HCC based on disulfidptosis. The model has good stability, applicability, and prognostic and immune response prediction abilities. N-myc downregulated gene1 (NDRG1) may contribute to poor prognosis by affecting macrophage differentiation, thus allowing HCC cells to evade the immune system.

Conclusion: Our study explores the disulfidptosis of HCC cells through multi-omics and establishes a new putative model that explores possible targets for HCC treatment.

Keywords: HCC; NDRG1; disulfidptosis; immune microenvironment; putative model.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* / therapy
  • Cell Death
  • Cell Line
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy
  • Liver Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Tumor Microenvironment

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (no. 2018A0303130184), in part by Project of Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province of China (no. 20242004), Funding by Science and Technology Projects in Guangzhou (no. 202201020270 and no.SL2024A03J01183), Hospital Fund of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital (no. 3D-A2020005), Youth Research Foundation of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital (no. YQ2020-003), and 3D Printing Project of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital (no. 3D-D2020020).