Immune-related lncRNA pairs as novel signature to predict prognosis and immune landscape in melanoma patients

Abstract

To investigate immune-related long non-coding RNA (irlncRNA) signatures for predicting survival and the immune landscape in melanoma patients. We retrieved gene expression files from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Genotype-Tissue Expression database and extracted all the long non-coding RNAs from the original data. Then, we selected immune-related long non-coding RNAs (irlncRNAs) using co-expression networks and screened differentially expressed irlncRNAs (DEirlncRNAs) to form pairs. We also performed univariate analysis and Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalized regression analysis to identify prognostic DEirlncRNA pairs, constructed receiver operating characteristic curves, compared the areas under the curves, and calculated the optimal cut-off point to divide patients into high-risk and low-risk groups. Finally, we performed multivariate Cox regression analysis, Kaplan–Meier (K–M) survival analysis, clinical correlation analysis, and investigated correlations with tumor-infiltrating immune cells, chemotherapeutic effectiveness, and immunogene biomarkers. A total of 297 DEirlncRNAs were identified, of which 16 DEirlncRNA pairs were associated with prognosis in melanoma. After grouping patients by the optimal cut-off value, we could better distinguish melanoma patients with different survival outcomes, clinical characteristics, tumor immune status changes, chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity, and specific immunogene biomarkers. The DEirlncRNA pairs showed potential as novel biomarkers to predict the prognosis of melanoma patients. Furthermore, these DEirlncRNA pairs could be used to evaluate treatment efficacy in the future.