Cuproptosis-related lncRNAs ovarian cancer: Multi-omics analysis of molecular mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets

Ovarian cancer (OV) is an aggressive malignancy that poses a significant threat to the health and lives of women. Cuproptosis is a newly discovered form of programmed cell death that offers a promising therapeutic target, although its significance in cancer progression remains uncertain. In this study, we established a prognostic model of OV with six cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), including CTC.246B18.8, LINC00337, RP11.568N6.1, RP11.158I9.8, RP11.678G14.3 and CYP4F26P, based on the data of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Lower risk scores were associated with favorable prognosis. In addition, a negative outcome was associated with high expression of CTC.246B18.8. According to the ESTIMATE algorithm, CTC.246B18.8 was negatively correlated with the ImmuneScore, and positively with immune checkpoints, immune cell infiltration, and tumor mutation burden (TMB). Moreover, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that pathways related to immunosuppression are likely activated in response to CTC-246B18.8 overexpression. Furthermore, CTC-246B18.8 expression was also associated with the sensitivity to various chemotherapy drugs. The expression patterns of the above lncRNAs were verified in ovarian tumor cell lines (SK-OV-3, COC1, and A2780) and normal ovarian epithelial cells (IOSE - 80). Six cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs), including ATP7B, MTF1, SLC31A1, DLD, ATP7A and DLAT, were differentially expressed between CTC-246B18.8(high) and CTC-246B18.8(low) patient groups, and exhibited organ-specific expression patterns pan-cancer. Small molecule drugs that target these CRGs were predicted, and potential candidates included DIAMIDE, bathocuproine disulfonate, D-penicillamine, etc. To summarize, our findings provide molecular insights into the role of cuproptosis in OV, and the signature lncRNAs and CRGs should be investigated further as immunotherapy biomarkers of OV.