The value of cuproptosis-related differential genes in guiding prognosis and immune status in patients with skin cutaneous melanoma

Background: Skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) is one of the most common cutaneous malignancies, which incidence is increasing. Cuproptosis is a new type of programming cell death recently reported, which may affect the progression of SKCM. Method: The mRNA expression data of melanoma were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus and the Cancer Genome Atlas databases. We constructed a prognostic model according to the cuproptosis-related differential genes in SKCM. Finally, real-time quantitative PCR was performed to verify the expression of cuproptosis-related differential genes in patients with different stages of cutaneous melanoma. Results: We detected 767 cuproptosis-related differential genes based on 19 cuproptosis-related genes, and screened out 7 differential genes to construct a prognostic model, which including three high-risk differential genes (SNAI2, RAP1GAP, BCHE), and four low-risk differential genes (JSRP1, HAPLN3, HHEX, ERAP2). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that SKCM patients with low-risk differential genes signals had better prognosis. The Encyclopedia of Genomes results manifested that cuproptosis-related differential genes are not only involved in T cell receptor signaling channel, natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, but also chemokine signaling pathway and B cell receptor signaling pathway. In our risk scoring model, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) values of the three-time nodes are 0.669 (1-year), 0.669 (3-year) and 0.685 (5-year), respectively. Moreover, the tumor burden mutational and immunology function, cell stemness characteristics and drug sensitivity have significant differences between low-risk group and high-risk group. The mRNA level of SNAI2, RAP1GAP and BCHE in stage Ⅲ+Ⅳ SKCM patients was significantly higher than that in stage Ⅰ+Ⅱ patients, while the level of JSRP1, HAPLN3, HHEX and ERAP2 in stage Ⅰ+Ⅱ SKCM patients was more remarkable higher than that in stage Ⅲ+Ⅳ SKCM patients. Conclusion: In summary, we suggest that cuproptosis can not only regulate the tumor immune microenvironment but also affect the prognosis of SKCM patients, and may offer a basic theory for SKCM patients survival studies and clinical decision-making with potentially therapeutic drugs.