An Autophagy-Related Gene Signature can Better Predict Prognosis in Osteosarcoma

Background: Osteosarcoma (OS) is a bone malignant tumor that occurs in children and adolescents. Due to a lack of reliable prognostic biomarkers, the prognosis of OS patients is often uncertain. This study aimed to construct an autophagy-related gene signature to predict the prognosis of OS patients. Methods The gene expression profile data of OS and normal muscle tissue samples were downloaded separately from the Therapeutically Applied Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases. The differentially expressed autophagy-related genes (DEARGs) in OS and normal muscle tissue samples were screened using R software, before being subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and hub autophagy-related genes were screened. Finally, the screened autophagy-related genes were subjected to univariate Cox regression, Lasso Cox regression, survival analysis, and clinical correlation analysis. Results A total of 120 DEARGs and 10 hub autophagy-related genes were obtained. A prognostic autophagy-related gene signature consisting of 9 genes ( BNIP3 , MYC , BAG1 , CALCOCO2 , ATF4 , AMBRA1 , EGFR , MAPK1 , and PEX ) was constructed. This signature was significantly correlated to the prognosis ( P  < 0.0001) and distant metastasis of OS patients ( P  = 0.013). Conclusion This signature based on 9 autophagy-related genes could predict metastasis and survival in patients with OS.