Significance of Parkinson Family Genes in the Prognosis and Treatment Outcome Prediction for Lung Adenocarcinoma

Front Mol Biosci. 2021 Sep 20:8:735263. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.735263. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Epidemiological investigations have shown that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have a lower probability of developing lung cancer. Subsequent research revealed that PD and lung cancer share specific genetic alterations. Therefore, the utilisation of PD biomarkers and therapeutic targets may improve lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) diagnosis and treatment. We aimed to identify a gene-based signature from 25 Parkinson family genes for LUAD prognosis and treatment choice. We analysed Parkinson family gene expression and protein levels in LUAD, utilising multiple databases. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was used to construct a prognostic model based on the TCGA-LUAD cohort. We validated the model in external GEO cohorts. Immune cell infiltration was compared between risk groups, and GEO data was used to explore the model's predictive ability for LUAD treatment response. Nearly all Parkinson family genes exhibited significant differential expression between LUAD and normal tissues. LASSO regression confirmed that our seven Parkinson family gene-based signature had excellent prognostic performance for LUAD, as validated in three GEO cohorts. The high-risk group was clearly associated with low tumour immune cell infiltration, suggesting that immunotherapy may not be an optimal treatment choice. This is the first Parkinson family gene-based model for the prediction of LUAD prognosis and treatment outcome. The association of these genes with poor prognosis and low immune infiltration requires further investigation.

Keywords: LUAD; Parkinson gene family; immunotherapy; neoantigen; prognosis; tumour mutation burden.