The construction and analysis of tumor-infiltrating immune cells and ceRNA networks in metastatic adrenal cortical carcinoma.

Runzhi Huang,Huabin Yin,Jie Zhang,Peng Hu,Ziqi Liu,Xiaolong Zhu,Tong Meng,Zongqiang Huang,Tingli Tian,Dianwen Song,Penghui Yan,Zhenyu Li,Yihan Liu

doi:10.1042/bsr20200049

Abstract

Purpose: To construct and analyze tumor-infiltrating immune cell and ceRNA (competitive endogenous RNA) networks in metastatic adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC).Methods: A ceRNA network was established to identify the ceRNAs involved in metastasis of ACC based on 92 samples from TCGA, including 18 cases of metastasis and 74 cases of non-metastatic primary tumors. And the algorithm “cell type identification by estimating relative subsets of RNA transcripts (CIBERSORT)” was used to quantify the proportion of immune cells in ACC. In addition, predictive nomograms based on the types of important immune cells or ceRNAs were constructed to predict ACC prognosis. Moreover, we evaluated the relationships between metastatic ACC-specific immune cells and ceRNA networks to identify the potential immune gene characteristics.Results: Ten prognostic biomarkers were identified as key members of the ceRNA network and three tumor-infiltrating immune cells were identified by CIBERSORT algorithm. Some important co-expression patterns between immune cells and ceRNAs network indicate significant correlation between Macrophages M0 and hsa-miR-130b-3p (P < 0.001), Macrophages M0 and H2AFX (P = 0.003).Conclusions: The present study inferred that the metastasis-related ceRNAs of H2AFX, hsa-miR-130b-3p and Macrophages M0 might play important roles in ACC metastasis.

Highlights

Adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC) is a malignant neoplasm originating from the adrenal cortex with an annual incidence of (0.7–2.0)/1 million people [1]
A competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network consisting of 65 mRNAs, 15 lncRNAs and 59 microRNAs was constructed, and tumor-infiltrating immune cells were analyzed by CIBERSORT and the co-expression of key members of the important tumor-infiltrating immune cells and ceRNA network was analyzed
The present study inferred that the metastasis-related ceRNAs of KPNB1, SGPL1, H2AFX, hsa-miR-30d-5p, hsa-miR-200c-3p and hsa-miR-130b-3p and metastasis-related immune cells of T cells CD4 memory resting and Macrophages M0 might play an important role in ACC metastasis

Summary

Introduction

Adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC) is a malignant neoplasm originating from the adrenal cortex with an annual incidence of (0.7–2.0)/1 million people [1]. The prognosis for ACC is poor with an overall 5-year survival of

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion