Constructing an APOBEC-related gene signature with predictive value in the overall survival and therapeutic sensitivity in lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: APOBEC family play an important role in cancer mutagenesis and tumor development. The role of APOBEC family in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not been studied comprehensively. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expression data of pan-cancer as well as LUAD was obtained from public databases. The expression level of APOBEC family genes was analyzed in different normal and cancer tissues. APOBEC mutagenesis enrichment score (AMES) was utilized to evaluate the APOBEC-induced mutations and the relation of APOBEC with genomic instability. Gene set enrichment analysis was used to identify differentially enriched pathways. Univariate Cox regression and Lasso regression were applied to screen key prognostic genes. The immune cell infiltration was estimated by CIBERSORT. RT-qPCR assay, CCK-8 and Transwell assay were conducted to explore gene expression and lung cancer cell invasion. RESULTS: Cancer tissues had significantly altered expression of APOBEC family genes and the expression patterns of APOBEC family were different in different cancer types. APOBEC3B was the most aberrantly expressed in most cancer types. In LUAD, we observed a significantly positive correlation of AMES with intratumor heterogeneity (ITH), tumor neoantigen burden (TNB), and tumor mutation burden (TMB). High AMES group had high mutation counts of DNA damage repair pathways, and high enrichment of cell cycle and DNA repair pathways. We identified four prognostic genes (LYPD3, ANLN, MUC5B, and FOSL1) based on AMES, and constructed an AMES-related gene signature. The expressions of four genes were enhanced and accelerated the invasion ability and viability of lung cancer cells. Furthermore, we found that high group increased oxidative stress level. CONCLUSIONS: APOBEC family was associated with genomic instability, DNA damage-related pathways, and cell cycle in LUAD. The AMES-related gene signature had a great potential to indicate the prognosis and guide immunotherapy/chemotherapy for patients suffering from LUAD.