1. A 4 Gene-based Immune Signature Predicts Dedifferentiation and Immune Exhaustion in Thyroid Cancer
- Author
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Yu-Long Wang, Cui-Wei Li, Tian Liao, Ben Ma, Qinghai Ji, Zhongwu Lu, Yu Wang, Xiao Shi, and Wen-Jun Wei
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,PRKCQ ,Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism ,Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7 ,Clinical Biochemistry ,Context (language use) ,Biology ,medicine.disease_cause ,Biochemistry ,Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator ,Endocrinology ,Immune system ,Internal medicine ,Cell Line, Tumor ,medicine ,Biomarkers, Tumor ,Humans ,Thyroid Neoplasms ,Thyroid cancer ,IRGs ,PSMD2 ,Mutation ,Gene Expression Profiling ,Biochemistry (medical) ,Cell Dedifferentiation ,medicine.disease ,Prognosis ,TNF Receptor-Associated Factor 2 ,Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ,Protein Kinase C-theta ,Cancer research ,Signal transduction ,Transcriptome - Abstract
Context The role of immune-related genes (IRGs) in thyroid cancer dedifferentiation and accompanying immune exhaustion remains largely unexplored. Objective To construct a significant IRG-based signature indicative of dedifferentiation and immune exhaustion in thyroid cancer. Design and Settings One exploratory cohort and 2 validation cohorts were used to identify stably dysregulated IRGs in dedifferentiated thyroid cancer (DDTC) and to obtain independent risk factors for dedifferentiation. The IRGs formed a gene signature, whose predictive value was tested by the receiver operating characteristic curve. Correlations between the signature and differentiation-related genes, immune checkpoints, and prognosis were analyzed. Gene set enrichment analyses were performed to identify related signaling pathways. Results Four IRGs (PRKCQ, PLAUR, PSMD2, and BMP7) were found to be repeatedly dysregulated in DDTC, and they formed an IRG-based signature with a satisfactory predictive value for thyroid cancer dedifferentiation. Correlation analyses revealed that immune checkpoints were closely related to the 4 IRGs and the IRG-based signature, which was significantly associated with the histological subtype (P = 0.026), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.001), and BRAFV600E mutation (P Conclusions This study suggests that IRGs participate in the dedifferentiation and immune exhaustion process of thyroid cancer and are potential biomarkers for DDTC.
- Published
- 2020