Detection of immune-related cells and genes in the glioma tumor microenvironment from the CGGA database using bioinformatics strategies

Abstract

Background: Glioma is one of the most common and aggressive types of primary malignant tumors in the neuroectoderm, with high mortality rates, and recurrence. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have provided new insights in the treatment of tumors. Yet, there are still a lack of effective immune markers and therapeutic targets for glioma immunotherapy.Material and Methods: First, The data of glioma and corresponding clinical characteristics obtain from the CGGA database. Secondly, we calculated the abundance of immune cells for each sample by the CIBERSORT algorithm and then identified immune cells associated with survival by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Critical immune genes were identified naturally by differential gene analysis, functional enrichment analysis, protein interaction analysis, and co-expression analysis. Eventually, the TIMER database was used to analyze further the level of immune infiltration of key immune cells.Results: Here, we have discovered macrophages M0 and monocytes, are associated with the survival of glioma, and three immune genes associated with survival were also uncovered, of which BIRC5 is an immune gene-specific to monocytes. The BUB1B and NCAPH are immune genes specific to macrophages M0. Furthermore, three immune genes were positively correlated with the infiltration levels of immune cells such as purity and dendritic cell and had a high response to anti-PD-1 treatment.Conclusions: In conclusion, we have identified macrophages M0 and monocytes, and three specific immune genes that may be of high research value in glioma immunotherapy. Our work may provide new research insight into the diagnosis and prognosis of glioma.