The prognostic value and immune landscape of a cuproptosis-related lncRNA signature in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Cuproptosis has been recognized as a novel regulatory cell death, which has been confirmed to promote the occurrence and development of tumors. However, whether cuproptosis-related lncRNA has an impact on the prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is still unclear. Methods: In total, 501 HNSCC tumor samples and 44 normal were downloaded from the TCGA database. Cuproptosis-related lncRNAs were obtained by co-expressed analysis. We got prognostic lncRNA that was associated with cuproptosis by using univariate Cox regression analysis and LASSO Cox regression. Then we constructed and validated the prognostic signature of HNSCC and analyzed the immune landscape of the signature. Results: The Prognostic Signature is based on 10 cuproptosis-related lncRNAs including AC090587.1, AC004943.2, TTN-AS1, AL162458.1, AC106820.5, AC012313.5, AL132800.1, WDFY3-AS2, CDKN2A-DT, and AL136419.3. The results of overall survival, risk score distribution, and survival status in the low-risk group were better than those in the high-risk group. In addition, all immune checkpoint genes involved were significantly different between the two risk groups (p < 0.05). The risk score was positively correlated with Eosinophils. M0 and M2 phenotype macrophages, mast cells activated, NK cells activated, and negatively related with B cells naive, mast cells resting, plasma cells, CD8T cells, T cells follicular helper, T cells regulatory (Tregs). Consensus clustering was identified in molecular subtypes of HNSC. More high-risk samples concentrated in Cluster1, which had a higher Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) score and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) alternation than Cluster2. Conclusion: Our study elucidated the correlation between cuproptosis-related lncRNA with prognosis and immune landscape of HNSCC, which may provide references for further research on the exploration of the mechanism and functions of the prognosis for HNSCC.