Identification of oxeiptosis-associated lncRNAs and prognosis-related signature to predict the immune status in gastric cancer

Abstract

As a novel form of cell death, oxeiptosis is mainly caused by oxidative stress and has been defined to contribute to the cellular death program in cancer. However, the precise involvement of oxeiptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) within gastric cancer (GC) remains elusive. Thus, our study was aimed to elucidate the pivotal effect of hub oxeiptosis-related lncRNAs on GC by comprehensively analyzing lncRNA and gene expression data obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Subsequently, we constructed a risk signature (risk-sig) using lncRNAs and further evaluated its prognostic significance. We successfully identified thirteen lncRNAs closely related with oxeiptosis that exhibited significant relevance to the prognosis of GC, forming the foundation of our meticulously constructed risk-sig. Notably, our clinical analyses unveiled a strong correlation between the risk-sig and crucial clinical parameters including overall survival (OS), gender, TNM stage, grade, M stage, and N stage among GC patients. Intriguingly, the diagnostic accuracy of this risk-sig surpassed that of conventional clinicopathological characteristics, underscoring its potential as a highly informative prognostic tool. In-depth mechanistic investigations further illuminated a robust association between this risk-sig and fundamental biological processes such as tumor stemness, immune cell infiltration, and immune subtypes. These findings provide valuable insights into the complex interplay between oxeiptosis-related lncRNAs and the intricate molecular landscape of GC. Ultimately, leveraging the risk scores derived from our comprehensive analysis, we successfully developed a nomogram that enables accurate prediction of GC prognosis. Collectively, our study established a solid foundation for the integration of thirteen hub oxeiptosis-related lncRNAs into a clinically applicable risk-sig, potentially revolutionizing prognostic assessment in GC and facilitating the development of innovative therapeutic strategies.