Prognostic alternative splicing signature in cervical squamous cell carcinoma

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Genomics
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CESC) remains a significant health concern.
• Identifying reliable prognostic biomarkers is crucial for effective patient management.
• Alternative splicing events (ASEs) are increasingly recognized for their role in cancer development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore alternative splicing events (ASEs) as potential prognostic biomarkers for cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CESC).
• To develop a prognostic index (PI) based on survival-associated ASEs (SASEs) for predicting patient outcomes.
• To investigate the functional roles of genes involved in SASEs through network analysis.

Main Methods:

• Utilized The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) for CESC mRNA expression and clinical data.
• Analyzed 41,776 ASEs across 19,724 genes using SpliceSeq.
• Constructed a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and performed Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG pathway analyses.

Main Results:

• Identified 3669 survival-associated alternative splicing events (SASEs) linked to 2596 genes.
• TP53 and UBA52 emerged as core genes within the SASEs-related PPI network.
• A prognostic index (PI) effectively distinguished between low-risk and high-risk groups, achieving an AUC of 0.88 in ROC analysis.

Conclusions:

• Alternative splicing events (ASEs) play a role in the pathogenesis of CESC.
• The developed prognostic index (PI) demonstrates significant prognostic potential for CESC.
• ASEs represent promising biomarkers for predicting outcomes in cervical cancer.