Department of Anesthesiology, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, 510060 Guangdong, China.
Department of Vascular and Plastic Surgery, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences), Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510080 Guangdong, China.
Mediators Inflamm. 2023 Apr 25;2023:3781091. doi: 10.1155/2023/3781091. eCollection 2023.
Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is a malignant tumor of the digestive system. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are important cellular elements in the tumor microenvironment of CRC, which contribute to CRC progression and immune escape. To predict the survival outcome and therapeutic responses of CRC patients, we identified genes connected with stromal CAF and generated a risk model. In this study, we used multiple algorithms to reveal CAF-related genes in the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets and construct a risk model composed by prognostic CAF-associated genes. Then, we evaluated whether the risk score could predict CAF infiltrations and immunotherapy in CRC and confirmed the expression of the risk model in CAFs. Our results showed that CRC patients with high CAF infiltrations and stromal score had worse prognosis than those with low-CAF infiltrations and stromal score. We obtained 88 stromal CAF-associated hub-genes and generated a CAF risk model consisting of ZNF532 and COLEC12. Compared with low-risk group, the overall survival in high-risk group was shorter. The relationship between risk score, ZNF532 and COLEC12, and stromal CAF infiltrations and CAF markers was positive. In addition, the effect of immunotherapy in the high-risk group was not as good as that in the low-risk group. Patients with the high-risk group were enriched in chemokine signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and focal adhesion. Finally, we confirmed that the expressions of ZNF532 and COLEC12 in risk model were widely distributed in fibroblasts of CRC, and the expression levels were higher in fibroblasts than CRC cells. In conclusion, the prognostic CAF signature of ZNF532 and COLEC12 can be applied not only to predict the prognosis of CRC patients but also to evaluate the immunotherapy response in CRC patients, and these findings provide the possibility for further development of individualized treatment for CRC.
结直肠癌(CRC)是一种消化系统的恶性肿瘤。癌症相关成纤维细胞(CAFs)是 CRC 肿瘤微环境中的重要细胞成分,有助于 CRC 的进展和免疫逃逸。为了预测 CRC 患者的生存结局和治疗反应,我们鉴定了与基质 CAF 相关的基因,并构建了一个风险模型。在这项研究中,我们使用多种算法来揭示基因表达综合数据库和癌症基因组图谱数据集中的 CAF 相关基因,并构建了一个由预后 CAF 相关基因组成的风险模型。然后,我们评估了风险评分是否可以预测 CRC 中的 CAF 浸润和免疫治疗,并证实了风险模型在 CAFs 中的表达。我们的结果表明,CAF 浸润和基质评分较高的 CRC 患者的预后比 CAF 浸润和基质评分较低的患者差。我们获得了 88 个基质 CAF 相关的核心基因,并生成了一个由 ZNF532 和 COLEC12 组成的 CAF 风险模型。与低危组相比,高危组的总生存率更短。风险评分、ZNF532 和 COLEC12 与 CAF 浸润和 CAF 标志物之间的关系呈正相关。此外,高危组的免疫治疗效果不如低危组。高危组患者在趋化因子信号通路、细胞因子-细胞因子受体相互作用和焦点黏附中富集。最后,我们证实风险模型中 ZNF532 和 COLEC12 的表达广泛分布在 CRC 的成纤维细胞中,并且在成纤维细胞中的表达水平高于 CRC 细胞。总之,ZNF532 和 COLEC12 的预后 CAF 特征不仅可用于预测 CRC 患者的预后,还可用于评估 CRC 患者的免疫治疗反应,这些发现为进一步开发 CRC 的个体化治疗提供了可能性。