Abstract
Objectives: Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent form of programmed cell death, which affects the prognosis of many cancers. Some long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) can affect the prognosis of cancer by regulating the process of ferroptosis. However, the role of ferroptosis-related lncRNA (frlncRNA) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is not yet clear. Materials and Methods: The data of OSCC patients were downed from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). After univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis, the prognosis-related ferroptosis-related lncRNAs were obtained to construct a prognostic model. Calculated the risk score to divide patients into high and low risk groups, and evaluated the predictive ability of the model and the differential expression of immunity in the high and low risk groups. Results: The prognostic model for OSCC was constructed based on 8 prognostic-related frlncRNAs which co-expressed with 25 mRNAs. Kaplan-Meier analyses displayed that the risk score is inversely proportional to patient survival. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and decision curve analysis (DCA) indicated that the risk score is superior to other clinical characteristics, and independent prognostic analysis demonstated that risk score is independent factor for the overall survival (OS) rate. The results of immunological analysis showed differences in immune cells, functions, immune checkpoints, and m6A expression between high and low risk groups. Conclusion: We constructed an OSCC patients prognosis model based on 8 frlncRNAs, which can provide prognostic evaluation and immune analysis for OSCC patients, and provided new direction for OSCC targeted therapy.
Highlights
Oral cancer is one of the common malignant tumors
Ferroptosis is a new type of programmed cell death (PCD), which is different from previous apoptosis and autophagy in its unique mechanism, that is, iron-dependent reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and irresistible lipid metabolism
Ferroptosis has been identified as a potential prevention or treatment strategy that triggers cancer cell death, especially for malignant tumors that are resistant to traditional therapies (Roh et al, 2016)
Summary
Oral cancer is one of the common malignant tumors. Due to the differences in the genetic signs of patients with the same TNM staging status, their response to treatment and individual differences may affect the prognosis assessment of patients with OSCC. Studying the biological, genetic and epigenetic changes of OSCC, especially the underlying mechanism of aggressive phenotype, is essential to improve the prognosis of OSCC patients. Studies have found that programmed cell death (PCD) is related to the occurrence, progression and metastasis of tumors (Lee et al, 2018). It is well known that inducing cell death is a feasible cancer treatment. Ferroptosis has been identified as a potential prevention or treatment strategy that triggers cancer cell death, especially for malignant tumors that are resistant to traditional therapies (Roh et al, 2016). Some genes that promote the proliferation of OSCC cells, such as GPX4 and SREBP, seem to protect cells from ferroptosis (Fukuda et al, 2021)
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