Development of a Novel Pyroptosis-Associated lncRNA Biomarker Signature in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Pyroptosis is a novel type of cell death observed in various diseases. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between pyroptosis-associated-long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), immune infiltration, and expression of immune checkpoints in the setting of lung adenocarcinoma and the prognostic value of pyroptosis-related lncRNAs. RNA-seq transcriptome data and clinical information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were downloaded, and consensus clustering analysis was used to separate the samples into two groups. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analyses were conducted to construct a risk signature. The association between pyroptosis-associated lncRNAs, immune infiltration, and expression of immune checkpoints were analysed. The cBioPortal tool was used to discover genomic alterations. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was utilized to investigate downstream pathways of the two clusters. Drug sensitivity was also examined. A total of 43 DEGs and 3643 differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified between 497 lung adenocarcinoma tissues and 54 normal samples. A signature consisting of 11 pyroptosis-related lncRNAs was established as prognostic for overall survival. Patients in the low-risk group have a significant overall survival advantage over those in the high-risk group in the training group. Immune checkpoints were expressed differently between the two risk groups. Risk scores were validated to develop an independent prognostic model based on multivariate Cox regression analysis. The area under time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC of the ROC) at 1-, 3-, and 5-years measured0.778, 0.757, and 0.735, respectively. The high-risk group was more sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs than the low-risk group. This study demonstrates the association between pyroptosis-associated lncRNAs and prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma and enables a robust predictive signature of 11 lncRNAs to inform overall survival.

Keywords: Lung adenocarcinoma; Prognosis; Pyroptosis; Tumor immune microenvironment; lncRNA.