Inhibition of neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction pathway can enhance immunotherapy response in colon cancer: an in silico study

The potential mechanism underlying the association between Homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and immunotherapy in colon cancer has not been investigated. The exon sequencing data and transcriptome data of 456 colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) patients were obtained from the TCGA database. Pathway activity score was calculated by GSVA methods and engaged in further survival analysis. The prognostic value of the candidate pathways was validated in an external GEO cohort and an immunotherapy cohort. Patients with high HRD were associated with poor prognosis, lower tumor mutation burden and microsatellite instability, higher fraction genome alteration, and less sensitivity to immunotherapy in COAD. And then, the neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction pathway was over-activated in high-HRD tumors and associated with immunosuppression in colon cancer with high HRD. Besides, the pathway was associated with prognosis and immunotherapy response in COAD. Moreover, genes in this pathway such as LTB4R2 can be used as a novel target for therapy development in colon cancer. Our study not only revealed the potential mechanism of HRD and the function of the neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction pathway in colon cancer but also provided new clues for the improvement of immunotherapy response in colon cancer.