Establishment and validation of a novel integrin-based prognostic gene signature that sub-classifies gliomas and effectively predicts immunosuppressive microenvironment

The integrin family members play a key role in cancer immunomodulation and prognosis. We comprehensively analyzed the expression patterns and clinical significance of integrin family-related genes in gliomas. A total of 2293 gliomas from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) and Gliovis platform were enrolled for analyses. Twenty-six integrin coding genes showed different expression patterns between glioma and normal brain tissues. We screened an integrin family-related gene signature (ITGA5, ITGA9, ITGAE, ITGB7 and ITGB8) that showed independent prognostic value and sub-classified gliomas into different prognostic and molecular clusters, further composed an integrin-based risk score model associated with glioma malignant clinical features, overall survival (OS), and immune microenvironment alterations. Besides, glioma patients with high-risk scores showed chemotherapeutic resistance and more immune cells infiltration as well as high immune checkpoints expression. Concurrently, we also revealed that high-risk score group presented resistance to T cell-mediated cancer killing process and lower rates of response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) treatment. In conclusion, our study identified a valuable integrin gene signature that predicted gliomas OS effectively, and sub-classified them into different phenotypes and accompanied with immunological changes, possibly acted as a biomarker for ICB treatment.