The Construction and Analysis of ceRNA Network and Patterns of Immune Infiltration in Colon Adenocarcinoma Metastasis

Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) is a malignant and lethal tumor in digestive system and distance metastasis lead to poor prognosis. The metastasis-specific ceRNAs (competitive endogenous RNAs) and tumor-infiltrating immune cells might associate with tumor prognosis and distance metastasis. Nonetheless, few studies have concentrated on ceRNAs and Immune cells in COAD.

The gene expression profile and clinical information of COAD were downloaded from TCGA and divided into two groups: primary tumors with or without distance metastasis. We applied comprehensive bioinformatics methods to analyze differential expression genes (DEGs) related to metastasis and establish the ceRNA networks. The Cox analysis and Lasso regression were utilized to screen the pivotal genes and prevent overfitting. Based on them, the prognosis prediction nomograms were established. The cell type identification by estimating relative subsets of RNA transcripts (CIBERSORT) algorithm was then applied to screen significant tumor immune-infiltrating cells associated with COAD metastasis and established another prognosis prediction model. Ultimately, co-expression analysis was applied to explore the relationship between key genes in ceRNA networks and significant immune cells. Multiple databases and preliminary clinical specimen validation were used to test the expressions of key biomarkers at the cellular and tissue levels.

We explored 1 significantly differentially expressed lncRNA, 1 significantly differentially expressed miRNA, 8 survival-related immune-infiltrating cells, 5 immune cells associated with distance metastasis. Besides, 3 pairs of important biomarkers associated with COAD metastasis were also identified: T cells follicular helper and hsa-miR-125b-5p (R = -0.200, P < 0.001), Macrophages M0 and hsa-miR-125b-5p (R = 0.170, P < 0.001) and Macrophages M0 and FAS (R = -0.370, P < 0.001). Multidimensional validation and preliminary clinical specimen validation also supported the results.

In this research, we found some significant ceRNAs (FAS and hsa-miR-125b-5p) and tumor-infiltrating immune cells (T cells follicular helper and Macrophages M0) might related to distance metastasis and prognosis of COAD. The nomograms could assist scientific and medical researchers in clinical management.