A Novel m6A Gene Signature Associated With Regulatory Immune Function for Prognosis Prediction in Clear-Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

The important role of N-6-methyladenosine (m(6)A) RNA methylation regulator in carcinogenesis and progression of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is poorly understood by now. In this study, we performed comprehensive analyses of m(6)A RNA methylation regulators in 975 ccRCC samples and 332 adjacent normal tissues and identified ccRCC-related m(6)A regulators. Moreover, the m(6)A diagnostic score based on ccRCC-related m(6)A regulators could accurately distinguish ccRCC from normal tissue in the Meta-cohort, which was further validated in the independent GSE-cohort and The Cancer Genome Atlas-cohort, with an area under the curve of 0.924, 0.867, and 0.795, respectively. Effective survival prediction of ccRCC by m(6)A risk score was also identified in the Cancer Genome Atlas training cohort and verified in the testing cohort and the independent cohort, with hazard ratio values of 3.474, 1.679, and 2.101 in the survival prognosis, respectively. The m(6)A risk score was identified as a risk factor of overall survival in ccRCC patients by the univariate Cox regression analysis, which was further verified in both the training cohort and the independent validation cohort. The integrated nomogram combining m(6)A risk score and predictable clinicopathologic factors could accurately predict the survival status of the ccRCC patients, with an area under the curve values of 85.2, 82.4, and 78.3% for the overall survival prediction in 1-, 3- and 5-year, respectively. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis with functional enrichment analysis indicated that m(6)A RNA methylation might affect clinical prognosis through regulating immune functions in patients with ccRCC.