Detection of the Fatty Acid Metabolism-Linked Genes in Lung Adenocarcinoma as Biomarkers for Clinical Prognosis and Immunotherapeutic Targets

Background

Lung cancer, on a global scale, leads to the most common cases of cancer mortalities. Novel therapeutic approaches are urgently needed to disrupt this lethal disease. The rapid development of tumor immunology combining breakthroughs involving fatty acid metabolism brings possibilities. Directing fatty acid metabolism is supposed to help discover potential prognostic biomarkers and treatment targets for lung cancer.

Methods

Through searching the GSE140797 dataset, we identified genes related to fatty acid metabolism as well as fatty acid metabolism-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs). We applied various methods to ascertain the independent prognostic value of the DEGs. The methods we utilized entail prognostic analysis, differential expression analysis, as well as univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. The lasso Cox regression model was utilized in examining how DEGs correlate with the immune score, immune checkpoint, ferroptosis, methylation, and OCLR score. The expression levels of ACAT1 and ACSL3 in tissues derived from normal lung and lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) tissues were compared by qRT-PCR.

Results

In this study, ACSL3 and ACAT1 were identified as fatty acid metabolism-related genes utilizing independent prognostic value and as a result, the risk prognostic model was built using these factors. qRT-PCR results implied that ACSL3 and ACAT1 expressions were upregulated and downregulated, correspondingly in tumor tissues. Additional evaluations suggested that ACSL3 and ACAT1 were affirmed to be remarkably correlated with the immune score, methylation, immune checkpoint, OCLR score, and ferroptosis.

Conclusions

ACSL3 and ACAT1 were effective prognostic biomarkers and potential immunotherapeutic targets in LUAD.