Analysis of the Prognostic Significance and Immune Infiltration of the Amino Acid Metabolism-Related Genes in Colon Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Amino acid metabolization is verified to be a part in the progression of cancer. However, genes related to the amino acid metabolism have not been identified in colon adenocarcinoma (COAD). A systematic prognostic model of COAD becomes a pressing need. Among genes related to the amino acid metabolism, RIMKLB, ASPG, TH, MTAP, AZIN2, PSMB2, HDC, ACMSD, and PSMA8 were identified to construct a risk model. Kaplan–Meier (K–M) analyses demonstrated that the high-risk group achieved a poor prognosis. Area under the respective ROC (AUC) values indicated the robustness of the model. To highlight its clinical value, multivariate Cox was used to obtain the optimal variables to construct a nomogram. A higher tumor mutation burden was observed in the high-risk group. However, the low-risk group had a stronger immune infiltration. Seven molecular subtypes were found by consensus cluster. Twenty-two hub genes were identified related to the ESTIMATE score using WGCNA. In brief, our research constructed a stable prognostic model related to the amino acid metabolism in COAD, revealing its connection to the immune microenvironment. The model guided the outcome of COAD and the direction of immunotherapy.

Establishment of a prognosis predictive model for liver cancer based on expression of genes involved in the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway

“…According to previous studies, the overexpression of ATG10 and PSMB2 in tumors promoted the invasion or metastasis of tumor cells[ 16 , 18 ], and USP8 showed the opposite effect[ 21 , 22 ]. Besides, PSMA8 could affect the progression and prognosis of colorectal cancer due to its strong association with PSMB2[ 23 ]. Interestingly, higher PSMA8 expression levels were correlated with good prognoses for breast cancer through epigenetic regulation[ 24 ].…”