Development of a novel necroptosis-associated miRNA risk signature to evaluate the prognosis of colon cancer patients

Background: Necroptosis is a recently discovered caspase-independent form of cell death which plays an important role in the occurrence and development of cancer. As an important regulatory factor in necroptosis, microRNAs (miRNAs) are important for the development of colon cancer. This study established a novel necroptosis-related miRNA risk signature to evaluate the prognosis of patients with colon adenocarcinoma (COAD). Methods: The necroptosis-related miRNAs were selected by assessing the differential expression of miRNAs in 459 COAD patient samples and 8 control samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Selection operator Cox analyses and survival analyses were used to establish the risk signature of 7 miRNAs related to necroptosis. Functional enrichment analysis and nomograms were used to explore the potential effects of necroptosis-related miRNAs on prognosis and metastasis. The target genes of the necroptosisrelated miRNAs were predicted using online databases and the genes related to overall survival (OS) were screened. Results: The risk signature was based on 7 necroptosis-related miRNAs. Nomograms showed that the risk signature was effective at predicting the prognosis and TNM stage of COAD patients. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses demonstrated that these miRNAs play an important role in cancer development, metastasis, and prognosis. A total of 38 target genes for these miRNAs were found to be associated with the OS in COAD patients. Conclusions: This study provided novel evidence that necroptosis-related miRNAs are associated with the prognosis of COAD patients. A risk signature established based on these miRNAs could effectively predict the prognosis and metastasis of COAD in patients.