N 7-methylguanosine-related gene risk signature as a potential prognostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains one of the most common malignancies worldwide, with an increasing annual incidence and mortality. N 7-methylguanosine (m7G) is a modification in which a methyl group is added to the seventh N position of messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA) guanine (G) by methylation transferase action. Increasing evidence revealed that m7G-related genes are closely associated with HCC development. This study aimed to develop a new m7G-related prognostic model to assess the prognosis of patients with HCC. Methods: Herein, we used RNA transcriptome sequencing and clinical data of patients with HCC from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Patients with HCC were classified into two subtypes based on the m7G gene, and differential expression genes (DEGs) between the two types were identified. Prognostic risk models were constructed by assessing the prognostic significance of these DEGs using univariate Cox, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Functional differences were compared between the high and low-risk groups and differences in immune infiltration and immunotherapy. Finally, a preliminary pan-cancer analysis of the two genes in the model was performed. Results: Significant survival differences were found between different subtypes of patients with HCC, who were divided into high and low-risk groups according to the median risk scores. The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed a substantially better overall survival in the low-risk group than that in the high-risk group ( p < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curves and within-group validation further confirmed the model’s reliability and accuracy. Additionally, significant differences were found in functional analysis, immune infiltration, and immunotherapy effects between the two groups. GAS2L3 and HTR1D have prognostic value in various cancers, which may help for subsequent studies. Conclusions: In conclusion, this prognostic model based on m7G-related genes is beneficial for individualized prognosis assessment of patients with HCC and provides a reference for clinical treatment.