A dual immune signature of CD8+ T cells and MMP9 improves the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

The 5-year survival of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is difficult due to the high recurrence rate and metastasis. Tumor infiltrating immune cells (TICs) and immune-related genes (IRGs) bring hope to improve survival and treatment of HCC patients. However, there are problems in predicting immune signatures and identifying novel therapeutic targets. In the study, the CIBERSORT algorithm was used to evaluate 22 immune cell infiltration patterns in gene expression omnibus (GEO) and the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) data. Eight immune cells were found to have significant infiltration differences between the tumor and normal groups. The CD8+ T cells immune signature was constructed by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm. The high infiltration level of CD8+ T cells could significantly improve survival of patients. The weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) algorithm identified MMP9 was closely related to the overall survival of HCC patients. K-M survival and tROC analysis confirmed that MMP9 had an excellent prognostic prediction. Cox regression showed that a dual immune signature of CD8+ T cells and MMP9 was independent survival factor in HCC. Therefore, a dual prognostic immune signature could improve the survival of patient and may provide a new strategy for the immunotherapy of HCC.