Regulatory Network Analysis of Mutated Genes Based on Multi-Omics Data Reveals the Exclusive Features in Tumor Immune Microenvironment Between Left-Sided and Right-Sided Colon Cancer

Left-sided colon cancer (LCC) and right-sided colon cancer (RCC) have distinct characteristics in tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). Although existing studies have shown a strong association between gene mutations and TIME, whether the regulatory mechanisms between gene mutations and TIME are different between RCC and LCC is still unclear. In this study, we showed the fractions of CD8+ T cells were higher while those of regulatory T cells were lower in RCC. Besides, a stronger association between gene mutations and TIME was observed in RCC. Specifically, using multi-omics data, we demonstrated the mutations of most top mutated genes (TMGs) including BRAF, PCLO, MUC16, LRP2, ANK3, KMT2D, RYR2 made great contributions to elevated fraction of immune cells by up-regulating immune-related genes directly or indirectly through miRNA and DNA methylation, whereas the effects of APC, TP53 and KRAS mutations on TIME were reversed in RCC. Remarkably, we found the expression levels of several immune checkpoint molecules such as PD-1 and LAG3 were correlated with corresponding DNA methylation levels, which were associated with the mutations of TMGs in RCC. In contrast, the associations between gene mutations and TIME were less significant in LCC. Besides, survival analyses showed APC mutation had adverse impact on immunotherapy while patients with BRAF mutation were more suitable for immunotherapy in colon cancer. We hope that our results will provide a deeper insight into the sophisticated mechanism underlying the regulation between mutations and TIME, and thus boost the discovery of differential immunotherapeutic strategies for RCC and LCC.