Integrated analysis of tumour-derived exosome-related immune genes to predict progression and immune status of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Tumour-derived exosomes (TDEs) play an important role in tumourigenesis and progression by regulating components in the tumour microenvironment (TME), however, the role of TDE-related immune genes in hepatocellular carcinoma is not fully known. We systematically analysed TDE genes from ExoCarta and immune genes from Immport,Machine learning ultimately identified eight TDE-related prognostic immune genes and used them as the basis for constructing a risk model, which was constructed to better predict patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) compared with published prognostic models. There were significant differences between the high and low risk groups in terms of biological functioning. Low-risk group were more sensitive to immunotherapy, the sensitivity to oxaliplatin and cisplatin differed between the high- and low-risk groups, and knockout of the core gene RAC1 limited the malignant biological behaviour of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. In conclusion, TIRGs are effective in predicting the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and provide a new perspective on immunotherapy and chemotherapy for patients.