A prognostic and immune related risk model based on zinc homeostasis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Yifei Shi; Runxin Ye; Yuan Gao; Fengyan Xia; Xiao-Fang Yu

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109389

A prognostic and immune related risk model based on zinc homeostasis in hepatocellular carcinoma

iScience. 2024 Mar 2;27(4):109389. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109389. eCollection 2024 Apr 19.

Authors

Yifei Shi¹, Runxin Ye¹, Yuan Gao², Fengyan Xia¹, Xiao-Fang Yu^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Cancer Institute (Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Intervention, China National Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Medical Sciences, Zhejiang Province, China), The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310016, P.R. China.
² Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shaoxing People's Hospital, Shaoxing 312035, P.R. China.
³ Zhejiang Provincial Clinical Research Center for CANCER, Hangzhou 310016, P.R. China.
⁴ Cancer Center of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, P.R. China.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The dysfunction of zinc homeostasis participates in the early and advancing malignancy of HCC. However, the prognostic ability of zinc homeostasis in HCC has not been clarified yet. Here, we showed a zinc-homeostasis related risk model in HCC. Five signature genes including ADAMTS5, PLOD2, PTDSS2, KLRB1, and UCK2 were screened out via survival analyses and regression algorithms to construct the nomogram with clinical characteristics. Experimental researches indicated that UCK2 participated in the progression of HCC. Patients with higher risk scores always had worse outcomes and were more associated with immune suppression according to the analyses of immune related-pathway activation, cell infiltration, and gene expression. Moreover, these patients were likely to exhibit more sensitivity to sorafenib and other antitumor drugs. This study highlights the significant prognostic role of zinc homeostasis and suggests potential treatment strategies in HCC.

Keywords: Cancer; Immunology.