Identifying the critical oncogenic mechanism of LDHA based on a prognostic model of T-cell synthetic drivers

Background: Despite its early success, immunotherapy focused on removing T-cell inhibition does not achieve the desired effect in most patients. New strategies that target antigen-driven T-cell activation are needed to improve immunotherapy outcomes. However, a comprehensive analysis of synthetic drivers of T-cells is greatly lacking in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and other types of tumors.

Methods: We comprehensively evaluated the patterns of LUAD patients based on T -cell synthetic drivers by unsupervised clustering analysis. A risk model was constructed using Lasso COX regression analysis. The predicted survival and immunotherapy efficacy of the model was validated by independent cohorts. Finally, single-cell sequencing analysis, and a series of in vitro experiments were conducted to explore the role of Lactate Dehydrogenase A (LDHA) in the malignant progression of LUAD.

Results: Patients in the high-risk group were characterized by survival disadvantage, a "cold" immune phenotype, and by not having benefitted from immunotherapy. LDHA was shown to promote LUAD cell proliferation, cell cycle, invasion, and migration. Secondly, we found that LDHA induced NF-κB pathway activation, tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance and immunosuppressant microenvironment. Finally, LDHA was found to be highly expressed in fibroblasts, which may be involved in promoting TKI resistance and mediating the immune escape.

Conclusion: This study revealed that the T-cell synthetic driver-associated prognostic model developed herein significantly predicted prognosis and immunotherapy efficacy in LUAD. We further investigated the role of LDHA in the malignant phenotype of tumor cells and tumor microenvironment remodeling, providing a promising and novel therapeutic strategy for LUAD.

Immune; LDHA; Lung adenocarcinoma; NF-κB pathway; Prognostic model; T-cell synthetic drivers.