Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 8 pp 2970—2998

Ubiquitin-proteasome system-mediated ubiquitination modification patterns and characterization of tumor microenvironment infiltration, stemness and cellular senescence in low-grade glioma

Jun Gu1, *, , Lijun Pang1, *, , Donghua Yan1, , Chunming Wang1, , Yuekun Song1, , Zhengshuai Jin1, , Zhenwei Xu1, , Yuanqing Mao1, , Shengzhe Liu1, &, , Sheng Chen1, ,

  • 1 The Affiliated Jiangsu Shengze Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
* Equal contribution

Received: February 4, 2023       Accepted: March 28, 2023       Published: April 11, 2023      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204650
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2023 Gu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The Ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) performs a crucial role in immune activation and tumorigenesis. Nevertheless, the comprehensive role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in the low-grade glioma (LGG) tumor microenvironment (TME) remains unknown. Ubiquitination modification patterns in LGG patients and corresponding characteristics of tumor immune traits, CSC stemness, and cellular senescence were evaluated via a comprehensive analysis of 20 ubiquitination modification regulators. For quantification of the ubiquitination modification status of individual patients, the UM-score was constructed and associated with TME characteristics, clinical features, cancer stem cell stemness, cellular senescence, prognosis, and immunotherapy efficacy. We identified that alterations in multiple ubiquitination regulators are linked to patient survival and the shaping of the tumor microenvironment. We found two different styles of ubiquitination modification in patients with low-grade glioma (immune-inflamed differentiation and immune-exclude dedifferentiation), characterized by high and low UM-score, and the two regulatory patterns of ubiquitination modification on immunity, stemness feature, and cellular senescence. We demonstrate that the UM-score could forecast the subtype of LGG, the immunologic infiltration traits, the biological process, the stemness feature, and the cellular senescence trait. Notably, the UM-score was related to immunotherapeutic efficacy, implying that modifying ubiquitination modification patterns by targeting ubiquitination modification regulators or ubiquitination modification pattern signature genes to reverse unfavorable TME properties will provide new insights into cancer immunotherapy. This research indicated that the ubiquitin-proteasome system is crucial in the formation of TME complexity and multiformity. The UM-score can determine ubiquitination modification status in individual patients, bringing about more personalized and effective immunotherapeutic tactics.

Abbreviations

UPS: Ubiquitin-proteasome system; LGG: Low-grade glioma; TME: Tumor microenvironment; DUB: Deubiquitinating enzymes; GBM: Glioblastoma; WGCNA: Weighted correlation network analysis; DEGs: Differentially expressed genes.