Development and validation of LncRNA prognostic index associated with immunogenic cell death in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract This study aims to construct immunogenic cell death(ICD) related LncRNA signature to explore the prognosis and immune infiltration of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) patients. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was randomly divided into training and test sets, while co-expression analysis was used to find relevant LncRNA. Next, the least absolute choice operator (LASSO) and Cox regression analysis were performed, and a total of 6 relevant LncRNAs (GAL, HOXD13, CTSV, SLC6A3, NR0B1, DCAF8L1) were found to establish the signature. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that expression of high-risk LncRNAs scores correlated with poor overall survival of HCCs. Then, a prognostic nomogram containing LncRNA features and clinicopathological features was constructed, which verified the good predictive performance of the model on the prognosis of HCC patients. Immune-related functions differed significantly between high-risk and low-risk groups. Tumor mutation burden (TMB) and immune checkpoint expression also differed significantly between the two groups. Finally, HCC patients with high-risk scores were more sensitive to several chemotherapy drugs. In conclusion, we have developed a new HCC classification system based on the characteristics of ICD, which has important clinical implications for assessing the prognosis and treatment of HCC patients.