Introduction
The pan-cancer study aims to identify similarities and differences between tumors from the perspective of genome, transcriptome, proteome, epigenome, and other multi-structured data, thus guiding clinical diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment options. Pan-cancer of the urinary system is a general term for malignancies of the urinary system, including renal cell carcinoma (RCC), prostate cancer (PRAD), and bladder cancer (BLCA) [
1]. Urological malignancy is commonly worldwide, characterized by difficulties in early diagnosis, multiple postoperative metastases, tumor heterogeneity, and insensitivity to chemotherapy drugs [
2,
3]. According to the global cancer statistic in 2020, there were more than 2.4 million new cases of urinary tract tumors, accounting for 12.5% of cancer incidence and 7.7% of new cancer deaths worldwide [
4].
Cuproptosis is a newly defined form of cell death that binds lipoic acid to substrate proteins in the mitochondria through lipoylation, causing lipoacylated mitochondrial enzymes to accumulate in the mitochondria in a toxic manner. These enzymes simultaneously inhibit multiple lipoacylases and copper-binding enzymes from gaining new cellular activity, resulting in cell death [
5]. This type of death is closely associated with carcinogenesis, neurological disease, and genetic disorders, such as Menkes and Wilson’s diseases [
6‐
8]. Cuproptosis has unique morphological and bioenergy characteristics that can be easily distinguished from other types of programmed cell death, such as apoptosis or ferroptosis [
9]. Currently, cuproptosis is considered a promising therapeutic strategy for cancer, especially for cancers with rapid respiratory rate [
9]. In the urinary system pan-cancer, although cuproptosis is extremely promising, the pattern of copper metabolism in tumor treatment is still not entirely clear. According to recent studies, immunotherapy of tumors is another effective treatment for tumors following surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted treatment. For example, the application of immune checkpoint PD1/PD-L1 inhibitors in clinical treatment increases antitumor immunity in patients. Hence, we performed this study for a comprehensive analysis of cuproptosis and immunotherapy in the urinary system pan-cancer.
LncRNA is a class of long non-coding RNA whose transcript length exceeds 200nt which does not participate in gene coding [
10]. However, lncRNAs are reported to modulate tumor growth, progression, and metastasis, and have been implicated as potential alternative biomarkers and therapeutic targets for cancer [
11‐
13]. For instance, LncRNA ANRIL is upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and promotes the proliferation and mitochondrial function of HCC by regulating Mir-199a-5p/ARL2 axis [
14].
However, the urinary system has identified only a few cuproptosis-related therapeutic targets. So, further clinical sample-based screenings for cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) are necessary for urinary system diagnoses and treatments [
15]. In our study, 12 cuproptosis-related lncRNAs from urinary system pan-cancer were identified and a prognostic prediction model was constructed using the machine learning method. The scientific of the model was evaluated through survival analysis, principal component analysis, tumor immunity, and drug sensitivity analysis, which provides a new method for clinical diagnosis and treatment of urinary system tumors in the future.
Discussion
Bladder, prostate, and kidney cancer are the three most common tumors in the urinary system [
1]. Although surgical treatment is the gold standard of urological tumor treatment, it is still prone to recurrence and metastasis after an operation, which seriously threatens the life and health of patients [
19]. At present, medication is also the main treatment for urinary tumors [
20]. The treatment of prostate cancer was mainly chemotherapy and new endocrine therapy [
21]. Because renal carcinoma is not sensitive to chemotherapy, it is mainly treated with molecular targeting [
22]. The development of prognostic markers for the early diagnosis of urinary system tumor is also particularly important as early symptoms are not easily detected in urological patients. Liquid biopsies are showing new promise in prostate cancer. The detection of prognostic marker in blood and other body fluids has become a new instrument for the early diagnosis, precise treatment, prognostic assessment and follow-up of patients with prostate tumor [
23]. We also hope that liquid biopsies will be used in the treatment of many cancers as soon as possible.
Copper is controlled by the liver and is an essential cofactor in metabolism [
24]. Existing studies have found that copper concentrations are stable in vivo, and once copper concentrations exceed a certain threshold, copper becomes toxic [
25]. Then, the study had also shown that in addition to copper, Zinc dyshomeostasis was also associated with the development of cancer [
26]. Cuproptosis is cell death based on excessive copper by targeting lipoylated TCA cyclin [
5]. The current study has shown that have shown that although copper itself does not significantly affect mitochondrial respiration; this metal's toxicity is enhanced many times in cells that breathe actively. Therefore, cuproptosis may be applied to treat tumor with faster respiration rates and become a new type of biomarker and target for cancer treatment [
9].
In our study, we analyzed the CRls in the three tumors and screened the co-expressed CRls in urinary pan-cancer. Finally, 12 CRls (BDNF−AS, WDFY3-AS2, FBXO30-DT, EDRF1-DT, AC106820.5, AC011477.2, SGMS1-AS1, CKMT2-AS1, AC015849.3 AL031670.1, AC096992.2, AL158212.3) and prognostic prediction models were obtained through three types of regression analyses. There are six CRLs have been reported as biomarkers in different cancer. lncRNA BDNF−AS was brain-derived neurotrophin factor antisense and downregulated in human prostate cancer. BDNF − AS may be a prognosis biomarker and inhibits the proliferation, invasion, migration, and EMT progression molecular intervening target in prostate cancer [
27]. lncRNA WDFY3-AS2 acts as a ceRNA to enhance TIMP3 expression by acting as a sponge for Mir-21-5p, and Mir-221-3p [
28]. AC106820.5 is also a CRLs and prognosis biomarker in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma [
29]. lncRNA SGMS1-AS1 is under-expressed in lung cancer of lung adenocarcinoma cells by targeting Mir-106A-5p /MYLIP axis [
30]. Enhancing the expression of CKMT2-AS1 may be an effective strategy to prevent the progression of colorectal cancer [
31]. lncRNA AL031670.1 had been reported as a prognosis target in kidney clear cell carcinoma [
32]. The remaining six lncRNAs have not been reported, but we discovered that they can be used as independent prognostic molecules in urinary system pan-cancer, and we speculate that they can be used as common new prognostic markers in urinary system pan-cancer.
To verify the precision of the risk model on the mechanism of the urinary tumor, we performed survival analysis, ROC curve, and mutation analysis. The highest area under the curve was observed in the risk score as well as the c-index [
33]. This demonstrates the scientific validity and sensitivity of our model. To enable our risk model to be more valid in clinical diagnosis and treatment, we performed immunotherapy analysis as well as drug sensitivity analysis [
34].
Tumor immunotherapy is a way to fight tumor by relying on the body's function, killing cancer cells and tumor tissues by activating the immune system, eliminating remaining lesions (local tumors or metastatic lesions), and preventing recurrence [
35]. In recent years, immunotherapy has attracted much attention because of its small side effects and good efficacy [
36]. Tumor immunotherapy is an ideal strategy for cancer treatment. Unlike conventional therapies, tumor immunotherapy is the activation of the body's innate immune system, which is a self-propagating cyclic process that leads to the accumulation of immune stimulators and enhanced T cell responses [
37]. This cycle can be divided into seven main steps, starting from antigen release by cancer cells and ending with cancer cell killing. Current cancer immunotherapy typically focuses on two strategies: first, stimulating key players in the immune system, such as cancer vaccines, cytokine therapy, and adoptive T cell transfer; Second, the elimination or suppression of immunosuppressive factors, such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy [
19,
38,
39]. In recent years, the rapid development of cancer immunotherapy, especially represented by cancer vaccines and immune checkpoint blockade, has shown some exciting clinical responses [
40].
It is well known that the accumulation of genetic mutations is the main cause of tumor formation [
41]. Since genetic mutations provide a source of additional neoantigens and the neoantigens produce an antitumor immune response together with tumor-associated antigens [
42]. This is consistent with our observation that both mutations and neoantigens were higher in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group. In order to better assess the benefit of immunotherapy in patients with urinary tumors, this study evaluated the difference in TIDE scores between high- and low-risk subgroups, suggesting that the TIDE scores were higher in the low-risk group. As the TIDE score is a response to sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors, it had been shown that higher TIDE scores are associated with a greater likelihood of immune escape from tumors and are associated with poorer survival in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors and less effective immunotherapy [
43]. This study demonstrates that the high-risk group has a higher potential for immune escape, suggesting that the high-risk group is more likely to benefit from immunotherapy. The TIDE model is a computational method that simulates tumor immune evasion by integrating the expression characteristics of T cell dysfunction and T cell rejection, and can predict the clinical response to immunotherapy The TIDE model is a computational method that simulates tumor immune evasion by integrating the expression characteristics of T cell dysfunction and T cell rejection, and can predict the clinical response to immunotherapy Although TIDE can predict the response to immunotherapy, it does not predict the survival prognosis of patients and is focused on T cell functional status. Our model is more clinically relevant as it can predict both the response to immunotherapy and the survival prognosis of patients. In addition, we found not only significant differences in TMB across risk groups but also that patients in the high-risk group had lower survival than the low-risk group for both TMB and TMB combined with risk scores. This suggested that TMB may be associated with survival and prognosis [
44].
Urinary system tumors are the most active immunotherapy species besides melanoma, as cytokine-based immunotherapy was the main treatment for advanced kidney cancer, BCG bladder infusion is the main treatment recommended for recurrence prevention after surgery for high-risk bladder cancer, and Sipuleucel-T, a prostate cancer vaccine, is the first therapeutic cancer vaccine approved by FDA so far [
45‐
47]. Despite the obvious advantages of immunotherapy in urinary system tumors, different patients respond differently to immunotherapy due to the heterogeneity of tumors [
48]. Thus, we analyzed stromal scores as well as immune cell infiltration in both risk groups. We used various methods to calculate multiple immune cell infiltrations, including ESTIMATE, MCP counter, and ssGSEA algorithm. Combined analysis showed that high-risk patients exhibited high immune scores and stromal scores. Also, various types of T cells, B cells, monocytes, and neutrophils had higher immune infiltration in the high-risk group. The above results suggested that patients in the high-risk group have higher tumor purity and are more suitable for immunotherapy.
Surgical resection remains the mainstay of treatment for urinary system tumors, yet about 30% of patients have distant metastases by the time of initial diagnosis [
49,
50]. 20%-30% of patients who undergo surgery will have recurrence after surgery [
51]. Since they are not sensitive to traditional radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy, the clinical treatment strategies for urinary system tumors are very limited [
52]. The main targeted drugs currently available for the treatment of urinary system tumors are sorafenib, sunitinib, and cisplatin [
53‐
55]. We found that some of the targeted drugs showed different sensitivities to patients in the high- and low-risk groups. For example, docetaxel and tipifarnib may treat patients in the high-risk group. Meanwhile, cisplatin and axitinib may treat patients in the low-risk group. Cisplatin has been the foundation of bladder cancer treatment strategies for a long time, but about half of bladder cancer patients are truly suitable for cisplatin therapy, which is consistent with the results of drug sensitivity analysis showing that patients in the high-risk group are less sensitive to cisplatin. Studies have shown that FGFR 2 and FGFR 3 play an important role in bladder cancer. Unfortunately, sensitivity of cisplatin in patients with FGFR-altered bladder cancer were unclear. Hence, by calculating risk scores for bladder cancer patients with FGFR mutations, drug sensitivity to cisplatin can be further predicted [
56]. This may provide a new thought for the treatment of bladder cancer. Consequently, an optimized approach based on CRLs prognostic model combining chemotherapy and targeted therapy may be relevant for the personalized treatment of urological patients.
Despite the relatively satisfactory results, our study still has some limitations. Since our data were obtained from the TCGA database, in vivo, and in vitro experiments are still needed to validate the risk score of the model and the biological function of CRLs.
In conclusion, our study constructed a prognostic risk model including 12 CRLs to accurately predict the prognosis of patients with urinary cancer and the efficacy of multiple immunotherapies. In the meantime, we have built the model into a more user-friendly website(
https://l5035t-zhihui-ma.shinyapps.io/Urinarysystem/). This model may help patients with urinary cancer benefit from tumor immunotherapy.
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