Construction of a New Immune-Related Competing Endogenous RNA Network with Prognostic Value in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Tumor microenvironment has significant influence on the gene expression of tumor tissues and on the clinical outcomes in lung adenocarcinoma. Infiltrating immune and stromal cells not only perturb the tumor signal in molecular studies, but also play crucial roles in cancer biology. The competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) are useful to explain the post-transcriptional layer regulated by gene translation and play an important role in the occurrence and progression of lung adenocarcinoma. Therefore, identifying novel molecular markers by constructing ceRNA associated with immune infiltration is of great significance to guide the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma in the future. According to the immune and stromal scores of lung adenocarcinoma samples in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database calculated by the ESTIMATE algorithm, we identified differentially expressed lncRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs associated with immune infiltration, including 60 dysregulated lncRNAs, 38 dysregulated mRNAs, and 29 dysregulated miRNAs. Based on the PPI network and Cox regression analysis, 5 mRNAs including CNR2, P2RY12, ZNF831, RSPO1, and F2 were identified to be related to immune infiltration and prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma, and their differential expression, prognosis and correlation with immune cells were verified. Next, through target binding prediction, pearson correlation analysis and expression analysis, a novel immune-related ceRNA network containing 6 lncRNAs, 4 miRNAs, and 3 mRNAs was finally constructed. The present study constructed a novel immune-associated lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA network, which deepens our understanding on the molecular network mechanism of lung adenocarcinoma and provides potential prognostic markers and novel therapeutic targets for the patients with lung adenocarcinoma.