Identification and validation of a novel cuproptosis-related lncRNA signature for predicting colorectal cancer patients' survival.

Background: Cuproptosis is a novel form of cell death referred to as copper-dependent cytotoxicity. The regulation of proptosis is becoming an increasingly popular cancer treatment modality. To date, few studies have attempted to identify the cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (CRLs). In this study, we sought to investigate the CRLs and construct a novel prognostic model for colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: The RNA-sequencing data of CRC patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. An analysis was conducted to identify the differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs, and a correlation analysis was performed to identify the CRLs. A univariate Cox analysis was conducted to select the prognostic CRLs. Based on a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression analysis, a prognostic signature comprising the 22 identified CRLs was constructed. A survival receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted to evaluate the performance of the signature. Finally, an Results: A signature comprising 22 CRLs was developed. The patients in the training and validation sets were divided into the low- and high-risk groups and had significantly different survival probabilities. This signature had outstanding prognostic accuracy in predicting the 5-year overall survival of patients [training set, area under the curve (AUC) =0.820; validation set, AUC =0.810]. The pathway enrichment analysis showed that the differential genes between low and high groups were enriched in several important oncogenic- and metastatic-associated processes and pathways. Finally, the Conclusions: Our findings provided promising insights into the CRLs involved in CRC. The signature based on CRLs has been successfully devised to prognosticate the clinical outcomes and treatment responses in patients.