A novel chromatin regulator signature predicts the prognosis, clinical features and immunotherapy of colon cancer

Abstract

Aim: To elucidate the potential function and prognostic value of chromatin regulators (CRs) in colon cancer. Materials & methods: A comprehensive analysis of CR RNA expression data from public databases was conducted. Results: The authors successfully established and validated a 17 CR-based signature using public databases. Ten CRs of the signature were eventually verified at the protein level using the Human Protein Atlas database. Functional enrichment showed that CRs were significantly enriched in cancer-related pathways. This signature was remarkably relevant to immune cell infiltration, immune checkpoints, tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) score and drug sensitivity. Conclusion: The authors identified a novel, reliable prognostic signature for colon cancer. The study provided new insights into the function of CRs and has important clinical implications for immunotherapy for colon cancer.

Keywords::

• chromatin regulators
• colon cancer
• GEO
• prognosis
• signature
• TCGA

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/epi-2022-0266

Author contributions

XP Li collected the data, performed the analysis and wrote the manuscript. CY Zhao, ZL Chen and ZS Xu participated in data collation and analysis. XW Huo was responsible for revision and proofreading of the manuscript. JH Yu and XJ Sun were responsible for supervision, the study design and funding acquisition.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their appreciation to the TCGA and GEO databases for the availability of the data.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was funded by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant serial nos. 81972720, 82002547). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data for colon adenocarcinoma were downloaded from the TCGA database (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov). Four colon cancer datasets for validation were obtained from the GEO database (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant serial nos. 81972720, 82002547). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.