Abstract
BackgroundLiver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world. T cell-mediated antitumor immune response is the basis of liver cancer immunotherapy.ObjectiveTo screen and analyze the RNAs associated with activated memory CD4 T cells and CD8 T cells in liver cancer.MethodsESTIMATE was used to calculate the stromal and immune scores of tumor samples, which were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in high and low stromal and immune scores were screened, followed by functional enrichment of overlapped DEGs. We then conducted a survival analysis to identify immune-related prognostic indicators and constructed protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and ceRNA networks. Finally, chemical small-molecule–target interaction pairs associated with liver cancer were screened.ResultsA total of 55,955 stromal-related DEGs and 1811 immune-related DEGs were obtained. The 1238 overlapped DEGs were enriched in 1457 biological process terms and 74 KEGG pathways. In addition, a total of 120 activated memory CD4 T cell-related genes and 309 CD8 T cell-related genes were identified. The survival analysis revealed that upregulated expression of T cell-related genes including EOMES, CST7, and CD5L indicated the favorable prognosis of liver cancer. EOMES was regulated by has-miR-23b-3p and has-miR-23b-3p was regulated by lncRNA AC104820.2 in the ceRNA network of activated memory CD4 T cell-related genes. In addition, EOMES was regulated by has-miR-23a-3p and has-miR-23a-3p was regulated by lncRNA AC000476.1 in the ceRNA network of CD8 T cells.ConclusionT cell-related RNAs EOMES, CST7, CD5L, has-miR-23b-3p, and has-miR-23a-3p may be associated with the prognosis of liver cancer. And the molecular characteristics of these T cell-related genes were plotted.
Highlights
Liver cancer is one of the ordinary malignant tumors, with high morbidity and mortality [1, 2]
A total of 309 CD8 T cell-related genes and 120 activated memory CD4 T cell-related genes were screened in liver cancer tumor samples
Forty-four chemical small-molecule–target interaction pairs associated with activated memory CD4 T cells and 276 pairs associated with CD8 T cells were screened
Summary
Liver cancer is one of the ordinary malignant tumors, with high morbidity and mortality [1, 2]. Epigenetic-related molecules (such as SNRPC) [5], non-coding RNA (such as hsa-mir-221) [6], and immune-related molecules (such as DCK) [7] could be used as potential biomarkers for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis monitoring in liver cancer. It is critically necessary to further explore the molecular pathogenesis of this disease by screening for new molecular biomarkers that could enhance early diagnosis and improve current therapies for liver cancer. Tumor infiltration of immune cells is closely related to the prognosis of tumors and the determination of immunotherapeutic targets [9]. Numerous studies have shown that the T cell-mediated antitumor immune response is the basis of tumor immunotherapy, which is associated with a favorable prognosis [12]. T cell-mediated antitumor immune response is the basis of liver cancer immunotherapy
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