A pyroptosis-related lncRNA-based prognostic index for hepatocellular carcinoma by relative expression orderings

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an invasive malignant tumor, and pyroptosis makes an important contribution to the pathology and progression of liver cancer. Many prognostic models have been proposed for HCC based on the quantitative expression level of candidate genes, which are unsuitable for clinical application due to their vulnerability against experimental batch effects. The aim of this study was to develop a novel pyroptosis-related long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-based prognostic index (PLPI) for HCC based on relative expression orderings (REOs).

Firstly, the pyroptosis-related lncRNAs were identified through the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and gene co-expression analyses. Then, the novel prognostic model PLPI was constructed by pyroptosis-related lncRNA pairs, which were identified by multiple machine learning algorithms. Gene set enrichment, somatic mutation, and drug sensitivity analyses were conducted to measure the differences between high- and low-risk patients. Multiple immune analyses were used to explore the association between PLPI and the immunological microenvironment.

In this study, a novel prognostic model PLPI based on 10 pyroptosis-related lncRNA pairs was constructed, which was proven to be an independent prognostic risk factor. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed that the model had a good prognostic ability in the training, testing, and external set, respectively [5-year area under the curve (AUC) =0.73, 5-year AUC =0.81, 4-year AUC =0.79]. The results of survival, somatic mutation, and immune analyses showed that the patients in the low-risk group had a better prognosis, lower rates of somatic mutation, and better immune cell infiltration. Personalized chemotherapeutic drugs were also identified for the patients with HCC.

The novel PLPI not only greatly predicted the prognosis of patients with HCC but could also offer novel ideas and approaches for the therapeutic management of HCC.