Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 11 pp 4739—4754

A novel immune-related microRNA signature for prognosis of thymoma

Bin Wang1,2, , He Xiao2, , Xin Yang3, , Ying Zeng4, , Zhimin Zhang5, , Rui Yang1,2, , Hang Chen1,2, , Chuan Chen2, *, , Junxia Chen1, *, ,

  • 1 Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
  • 2 Department of Oncology, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing 400042, China
  • 3 Department of Pathology, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing 400042, China
  • 4 Department of Pathology, Chongqing General Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 410309, China
  • 5 Department of Thoracic Surgery, The Third Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Chongqing 100039, China
* Equal contribution

Received: March 6, 2022       Accepted: May 10, 2022       Published: June 7, 2022      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204108
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2022 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Introduction: Immune microenvironment and microRNAs serve as common predictors for diagnosis and prognosis of tumors.

Methods: Expression of 122 genes and 126 microRNAs in thymoma was obtained from TCGA database. The proportion of tumor-infiltrating cells was calculated, and IMRS was constructed. TREM2hi score was calculated before functional enrichment analysis on gene sets.

Results: IMRS3, TREM2hi score, and CD8+ T lymphocyte abundance were significantly different among WHO classifications. WHO classification, Masaoka staging, and miR-130b-5p, miR-1307-3p, miR-425-5p, CD8, CD68, and CCL18 expression were prognostic factors for relapse-free survival and overall survival. IMRS3 upregulation polarized macrophages into M2, which rejected CD8+ T and other effector lymphocytes to promote thymoma malignant progression.

Conclusions: BRRS may present a novel immune-related microRNA signature for TET prognosis.

Abbreviations

TETs: Thymic epithelial tumors; WHO: World Health Organization; qRT-PCR: Quantitative RT-PCR; CRS: combined risk scores.