Identification of the Pyroptosis-related Signature for Predicting Prognosis in Cervical Cancer

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common malignancies in gynecology. There is still a lack of specific biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of CC. Pyroptosis is one of the methods of programmed cell death, and its various components are related to the occurrence, invasion, and metastasis of tumors. However, the role of pyroptosis in CC has not yet been elucidated.Methods: This study focuses on the development of a prognostic signature associated with pyroptosis for CC patients using integrated bioinformatics to elucidate the relationship between the signature and the tumor microenvironment and immune response.Results: We identified a prognostic signature based on eight pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs), with better prognostic survival in the low-risk group (P<0.05) and AUC values greater than 0.7. The results of the multi-factor Cox regression analysis indicated that the signature could be used as an independent prognostic factor, and both the DCA and the Nomogram suggested that the prognostic signature had good predictive power. Interestingly, this prognostic signature can also be applied to multiple tumors. In addition, the tumor microenvironment and immune infiltration status were significantly different between high and low-risk groups (P<0. 05). The core gene GZMB was screened and the CC-associated GZMB/ miR-378a/TRIM52-AS1 regulatory axis was constructed.Conclusion: The study successfully established the prognostic signature based on eight PRGs and reflected their tumor microenvironment and immune infiltration. The GZMB/ miR-378a/TRIM52-AS1 regulatory axis may play an important regulatory role in the development of CC, and further experimental studies are needed to validate these results subsequently.