Characterization and verification of CAF-relevant prognostic gene signature to aid therapy in bladder cancer

Huidong Zhou; Ruqi Li; Jinghong Liu; Jianhua Long; Tao Chen

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23873

Characterization and verification of CAF-relevant prognostic gene signature to aid therapy in bladder cancer

Heliyon. 2024 Jan 11;10(3):e23873. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23873. eCollection 2024 Feb 15.

Authors

Huidong Zhou¹, Ruqi Li², Jinghong Liu¹, Jianhua Long³, Tao Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, Changsha Hospital of Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
² Department of Electrocardiography, The Affiliated Changsha Central Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Changsha, Hunan, China.
³ Department of Urology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China.

Abstract

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are significantly involved in determining the patient's prognosis and response to bladder cancer (BLCA) therapy. CAFs can induce epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) as well as complex interaction with immune cells. Hence, it is imperative to identify potential markers for enhancing our understanding of CAFs in BLCA progression and immune regulation. A variety of algorithms and analyses were employed in the study, leading to the development of a novel prognostic feature for CAFs-Stromal-EMT (CSE)-prognostic feature. This feature was constructed based on the genes MFAP5, PCOLCE2, and JUN. Furthermore, we revealed that patients with higher CSE risk scores responded to immunotherapy better compared to those with lower. Finally, we verified two CSE-related genes using in vitro experiments. Our results suggested that the CSE-prognostic feature could predict the prognosis and evaluate the response of patients to immune and chemotherapies. This would aid clinicians in designing treatment strategies for patients with BLCA.

Keywords: Bladder cancer; Cancer-associated fibroblasts; Epithelial-mesenchymal transformation; Immunotherapy; Invasion; Migration.