Cuproptosis associated genes affect prognosis and tumor microenvironment infiltration characterization in lung adenocarcinoma

Cuproptosis, a newly discovered mechanism of programmed cell death, is important for detailing the met-abolic aspects of cancer progression and thereby guiding cancer therapy. An exciting era of translational medicine has led to the rapid development of countless immunotherapeutic strategies. The existing successful cancer im-munotherapies have sparked new hope for patients with solid and hematologic malignancies. Hence, it is important to characterize the link between the cuproptosis process and the immunity status in the tumor microenvironment (TME) in Lung Adenocarcinoma (LUAD), which may be able to predict patient's prognosis. In this study, we sys-tematically assessed 10 cuproptosis-associated genes (CAGs) and comprehensively characterized the relationship between cuproptosis and the molecular characteristics and immune cell infiltration of tumor tissue, prognosis and clinical treatment of patients. Subsequently, the CAG_score for predicting overall survival (OS) was established and its reliable predictive ability in LUAD patients was confirmed. Next, we created a highly reliable nomogram to facili-tate the clinical viability of the CAG_score. The low CAG_score group, with lower immune cell infiltration, and muta-tion burden, had a significantly superior OS, which was associated with a better response to immunotherapy. The present study revealed that cuproptosis play a significant role in TME regulation in LUAD. Collectively, we identified a prognostic CAGs-related signature for LUAD patients. This signature may contribute to clarifying the characteristics of TME and enable the exploration of more potent immunotherapy strategies.

Automated summary

This study comprehensively evaluated the relationship between cuproptosis-related genes and the molecular characteristics, prognosis, clinical treatment, and immune cell infiltration of tumor tissue in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). A CAG_score was established to predict overall survival (OS) and a reliable nomogram was created. The low CAG_score group showed lower immune cell infiltration and mutation burden, and had better prognosis and response to immunotherapy.