Cuproptosis-related gene signature stratifies lower-grade glioma patients and predicts immune characteristics

Abstract

Cuproptosis is the most recently discovered type of regulated cell death and is mediated by copper ions. Studies show that cuproptosis plays a significant role in cancer development and progression. Lower-grade gliomas (LGGs) are slow-growing brain tumors. The majority of LGGs progress to high-grade glioma, which makes it difficult to predict the prognosis. However, the prognostic value of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) in LGG needs to be further explored. mRNA expression profiles and clinical data of LGG patients were collected from public sources for this study. Univariate Cox regression analysis and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression model were used to build a multigene signature that could divide patients into different risk groups. The differences in clinical pathological characteristics, immune infiltration characteristics, and mutation status were evaluated in risk subgroups. In addition, drug sensitivity and immune checkpoint scores were estimated in risk subgroups to provide LGG patients with precision medication. We found that all CRGs were differentially expressed in LGG and normal tissues. Patients were divided into high- and low-risk groups based on the risk score of the CRG signature. Patients in the high-risk group had a considerably lower overall survival rate than those in the low-risk group. According to functional analysis, pathways related to the immune system were enriched, and the immune state differed across the two risk groups. Immune characteristic analysis showed that the immune cell proportion and immune scores were different in the different groups. High-risk group was characterized by low sensitivity to chemotherapy but high sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors. The current study revealed that the novel CRG signature was related to the prognosis, clinicopathological features, immune characteristics, and treatment perference of LGG.