Construction of a multigenic diagnostic, prognostic, and immune infiltration model with methylation-associated regulators in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

• DOI: 10.21037/jtd-2025-341
• Publication Date: 2025-04-29T10:42:48Z
• Authors: Xing Liu; Feng Shen; Ting Wang; Jingru Li; Xiaowei Sheng; Yulan Deng; Xuewei Zhang; Bing Zhao; Ying Zhou; Peng Shang; Xinyi Shi; Zilong Zhao; Zhonglin Yu; Sarbajit Mukherjee; Anwaar Saeed; Jing Liu
• Keywords: Infiltration (HVAC)

Methylation-related regulators may be involved in the prognostic prediction of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Our study aimed to apply bioinformatics screen methylation-related for construction a model patients with ESCC and assess their diagnostic value correlation immune infiltration. Prognosis-related genes were identified from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Methylation-associated filtered using GeneCards We used least absolute shrinkage selection operator (LASSO) Cox proportional hazards regression identify indicators. applied single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) clarify relationship between indicators infiltration (n=82). constructed homocysteine-inducible ER protein ubiquitin-like domain 1 (HERPUD1), trans-2,3-enoyl-CoA reductase (TECR), melanoma antigen A11 (MAGEA11), NOP2/Sun RNA methyltransferase 6 (NSUN6) evaluate prognosis ESCC. A higher risk score was associated shorter overall survival (OS) [hazard ratio (HR) =5.77, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.13-15.58; P<0.001]. Time-dependent area under curve (AUC) revealed that HERPUD1, TECR, MAGEA11, NSUN6 had high predictive at different time points. Furthermore, we found combined based on excellent efficacy (AUC =0.911; CI: 0.888-0.935). Finally, ssGSEA algorithm showed HERPUD1 significantly positively correlated both cellular genetic levels, while TECR significant negative levels. model, built NSUN6, could effectively predict ESCC, enhance efficacy, reflect microenvironment. findings are hypothesis generating larger confirmatory studies needed validate our results.