Solute carrier-related signature for assessing prognosis and immunity in patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common malignant kidney cancer. However, the tumor microenvironment and crosstalk involved in metabolic reprogramming in ccRCC are not well-understood. METHODS: We used The Cancer Genome Atlas to obtain ccRCC transcriptome data and clinical information. The E-MTAB-1980 cohort was used for external validation. The GENECARDS database contains the first 100 solute carrier (SLC)-related genes. The predictive value of SLC-related genes for ccRCC prognosis and treatment was assessed using univariate Cox regression analysis. An SLC-related predictive signature was developed through Lasso regression analysis and used to determine the risk profiles of patients with ccRCC. Patients in each cohort were separated into high- and low-risk groups based on their risk scores. The clinical importance of the signature was assessed through survival, immune microenvironment, drug sensitivity, and nomogram analyses using R software. RESULTS: SLC25A23, SLC25A42, SLC5A1, SLC3A1, SLC25A37, SLC5A6, SLCO5A1, and SCP2 comprised the signatures of the eight SLC-related genes. Patients with ccRCC were separated into high- and low-risk groups based on the risk value in the training and validation cohorts; the high-risk group had a significantly worse prognosis (p < 0.001). The risk score was an independent predictive indicator of ccRCC in the two cohorts according to univariate and multivariate Cox regression (p < 0.05). Analysis of the immune microenvironment showed that immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint gene expression differed between the two groups (p < 0.05). Drug sensitivity analysis showed that compared to the low-risk group, the high-risk group was more sensitive to sunitinib, nilotinib, JNK-inhibitor-VIII, dasatinib, bosutinib, and bortezomib (p < 0.001). Survival analysis and receiver operating characteristic curves were validated using the E-MTAB-1980 cohort. CONCLUSIONS: SLC-related genes have predictive relevance in ccRCC and play roles in the immunological milieu. Our results provide insight into metabolic reprogramming in ccRCC and identify promising treatment targets for ccRCC.