Construction and validation of a prognostic signature for mucinous colonic adenocarcinoma based on N7-methylguanosine-related long non-coding RNAs.

BACKGROUND

Mucinous colonic adenocarcinoma remains a challenging disease due to its high propensity for metastasis and recurrence. N7-methylguanosine (m7G) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) are closely associated with the occurrence and progression of tumors. However, research on m7G-related lncRNA in mucinous colonic adenocarcinoma is lacking. Therefore, we sought to explore the prognostic impact of m7G-related lncRNAs in mucinous adenocarcinoma (MC) patients.

METHODS

In this study, Pearson analysis was used to identify m7G-related lncRNAs from transcriptome data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Univariate Cox regression analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression were used to further screen m7G-related lncRNAs and incorporate them into a prognostic signature. Based on the risk model, patients were divided into low- and high-risk groups and randomly assigned to the training set and test sets in a 6:4 ratio. Kaplan-Meier, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, multivariate regression, and nomogram analyses were used to confirm the accuracy of the signature. The CIBERSORT algorithm was used to calculate the degree of immune cell infiltration (ICI). Finally, the correlation of the prognostic signature with tumor mutational burden (TMB) and immunophenotype score (IPS) was evaluated.

RESULTS

A total of 432 m7G-related lncRNAs were identified by Pearson analysis. Univariate Cox regression, LASSO regression and survival analysis were performed to further select six m7G-related lncRNAs (P<0.05): , , , , , and . Based on the risk model, heat maps, Kaplan-Meier curves, and ROC curves were constructed, and the results showed that there were significant differences in expression levels and survival status between the two risk groups. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values for 3-, 5-, and 10-year survival in the training set were 0.944, 0.957, and 1.000, respectively. And in the test set were 0.964, 1.000, and 1.000, respectively. Subsequently, univariate and multivariate regression analyses of clinical characteristics and risk score were performed. The results of risk score were [hazard ratio (HR): 6.458, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.708-15.403, P<0.001; HR: 7.280, 95% CI: 2.500-21.203, P<0.001], respectively. Using the risk score as an independent prognostic factor, the AUC of it over 3, 5, and 10 years was 0.911, 0.955, and 0.961, respectively. Calibration plots for the nomogram show that the model calibration line is very close to the ideal calibration line, indicating good calibration. The level of ICI was significantly different in the different risk groups. Survival analysis showed that, regardless of TMB risk, patients with MC and a high-risk score consistently had a poor overall survival (OS).

CONCLUSIONS

The m7G-related lncRNA prognostic signature has potential value for the prognosis of mucinous colonic adenocarcinoma.