Paired stress granule gene signatures predict survival and inform immune status in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Background Stress granules formation is closely associated with the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Factors determination this process remain to be elucidated. In this study, stress granule-related genes were validated as a predictor of HCC. Methods The stress granules-related associated genes were collected from the MSGP database and the MsigDB database. A novel prognostic risk scoring model were constructed by paired gene signature method. We identified eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A3 (EIF4A3) and karyopherin subunit alpha 2 (KPNA2) as candidate prognostic biomarkers, and their correlation with both prognosis and immune infiltration in HCC were evaluated. The expression of EIF4A3 and KPNA2 in HCC tissues was detected through immunohistochemistry (IHC). Results Through pairing of all DESG gene, we obtained a total of 16251 significance pairs. Subsequently, 93 pairs of all pairs containing EIF4A3 were extracted in this research. As a stress granule formation regulator, KPNA2 displayed the greatest correlations with EIF4A3 in HCC. Hyperactivated EIF4A3 and KPNA2 is associated with the poor clinical outcome of HCCs after hepatic resection. Involvement of EIF4A3 and KPNA2 in immune infiltration have been showed. Conclusion Our study identified coexistence of EIF4A3 and KPNA2 dysregulation inform poor clinical outcomes in HCC.