Machine learning-based new classification for immune infiltration of gliomas

Glioma is a highly heterogeneous and poorly immunogenic malignant tumor, with limited efficacy of immunotherapy. The characteristics of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) are one of the important factors hindering the effectiveness of immunotherapy. Therefore, this study aims to reveal the immune microenvironment (IME) characteristics of glioma and predict different immune subtypes using machine learning methods, providing guidance for immune therapy in glioma.

We first performed unsupervised cluster analysis on the genes and arrays of 693 gliomas in CGGA database and 702 gliomas in TCGA database. Then establish and verify the classification model through Machine Learning (ML). Then, use DAVID to perform functional enrichment analysis for different immune subtypes. Next step, analyze the immune cell distribution, stemness maintenance, mesenchymal phenotype, neuronal phenotype, tumorigenic cytokines, molecular and clinical characteristics of different immune subtypes of gliomas.

Firstly, we divide the IME of gliomas in the CGGA database into four different subtypes, namely IM1, IM2, IM3, and IM4; similarly, the IME of gliomas in the TCGA database can also be divided into four different subtypes (IMA, IMB, IMC, and IMD). Next, based on ML, we developed a highly reliable model for predicting different immune subtypes of glioma. Then, we found that Monocytic lineage, Myeloid dendritic cells, NK cells and CD8 T cells had the highest enrichment in the IM1/IMD subtypes. Cytotoxic lymphocytes were highest expressed in the IM4/IMA subtypes. Next step, Enrichment analysis revealed that the IM1-IMD subtypes were mainly closely related to the production and secretion of IL-8 and TNF signaling pathway. The IM2-IMB subtypes were strongly associated with leukocyte activation and NK cell mediated cytotoxicity. The IM3-IMC subtypes were closely related to mitotic nuclear division and mitotic cell cycle process. The IM4-IMA subtypes were strongly associated with Central Nervous System (CNS) development and striated muscle tissue development. Afterwards, Single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) showed that stemness maintenance phenotypes were mainly enriched in the IM4/IMA subtypes; Neuronal phenotypes were closely associated with the IM2/IMB subtypes; and mesenchymal phenotypes and tumorigenic cytokines were highly correlated with the IM2 /IMB subtypes. Finally, we found that compared with patients in the IM2/IMB and IM4/IMA subtypes, the IM1/IMD and IM3/IMC subtypes have the highest proportion of GBM patients, the shortest average overall survival of patients and the lowest proportion of patients with IDH mutation and 1p36/19q13 co-deletion.

We developed a highly reliable model for predicting different immune subtypes of glioma by ML. Then, we comprehensively analyzed the immune infiltration, molecular and clinical features of different immune subtypes of gliomas and defined gliomas into four subtypes: immunogenic subtype, adaptive immune resistance subtype, mesenchymal subtype, and immune tolerance subtype, which represent different TMEs and different stages of tumor development.