Identification and Validation of Cuproptosis-Related Signature to Predict Prognosis and Characterize Tumor Immune Infiltration in Kidney Clear Cell Carcinoma

Cuproptosis is a novel form of cell death termed Cu-dependent cytotoxicity. However, the roles of cuproptosis-related genes (CPRGs) in Kidney Clear Cell Carcinoma (KIRC) have not been explored comprehensively. We obtained CPRGs and utilized consensus molecular clustering by "NMF" to stratify KIRC patients in the TCGA cohort. ssGSEA and CIBERSORT algorithms were used to evaluate the relative infiltration levels of immune cell types in a tumor microenvironment (TME). Risk_score based on CPRGs was calculated to predict patients' survival outcomes, and its performance was validated in the E-MTAB-1980 cohort. We identified three clusters with different clinicopathology characteristics. It was found that the cluster with the worst survival rates exhibited a higher enrichment of activated CD4/8+ T cells. In addition, we found the risk_score based on CPRGs could be used for patients' prognosis prediction, and its predictive value was successfully validated in the E-MTAB-1980 cohort. In this study, we uncovered the biological function of cuproptosis-related genes in the TME and its correlations with clinicopathological parameters and patients' prognosis in KIRC. These findings could provide new angles for immunotherapy of KIRC patients.