Identification of Autophagy-Related Prognostic Signature and Analysis of Immune Cell Infiltration in Low-Grade Gliomas

Abstract

Autophagy plays an important role in cancer. Many studies have demonstrated that autophagy-related genes (ARGs) can act as a prognostic signature for some cancers, but little has been known in low-grade gliomas (LGG). In our study, we aimed to establish a prognostical model based on ARGs and find prognostic risk-related key genes in LGG. In the present study, a prognostic signature was constructed based on a total of 8 ARGs (MAPK8IP1, EEF2, GRID2, BIRC5, DLC1, NAMPT, GRID1, and TP73). It was revealed that the higher the risk score, the worse was the prognosis. Time-dependent ROC analysis showed that the risk score could precisely predict the prognosis of LGG patients. Additionally, four key genes (TGFβ2, SERPING1, SERPINE1, and TIMP1) were identified and found significantly associated with OS of LGG patients. Besides, they were also discovered to be strongly related to six types of immune cells which infiltrated in LGG tumor. Taken together, the present study demonstrated the promising potential of the ARG risk score formula as an independent factor for LGG prediction. It also provided the autophagy-related signature of prognosis and potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of LGG.