Abstract:Objective To explore the relationship between m6A-related lncRNAs and the prognosis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and its clinical significance.Methods Transcriptome data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and clinical data of LSCC were obtained. The lncRNAs associated with the m6A gene were screened by co-expression analysis, a prognostic model of LSCC was constructed by lasso regression analysis and iterative analysis of cross-validated methods, and the relationship between m6A-associated lncRNA and LSCC survival was explored by univariate cox analysis. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to validate the transcript levels of lncRNA in the prognostic model. Risk scores were calculated by the prognostic model to distinguish LSCC into high-and low-risk groups, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed between the two groups. Tumor tissues were detected for immune infiltration, and the correlation between the risk score value and the degree of immune cell infiltration was evaluated by correlation analysis.Results A total of 169 lncRNA associated with m6A genes were screened out by co-expression analysis (correlation coefficient >0.4, P<0.001), and univariate cox analysis determined the prognosis-associated lncRNAs in LSCC including ALOX12-AS1 (P<0.05), LINC00528 (P<0.05), STAG3L5P-PVRIG2P-PILRB (P<0.05), MNX1-AS1 (P<0.01), and LINC02043 (P<0.05). Lasso regression and cross-validation iterative analysis revealed that the root-mean-square error of the model was the smallest when the variable was 4, i.e., only ALOX12-AS1, LINC00528, STAG3L5P-PVRIG2P-PILRB and MNX1-AS1 could be used as model variables. In the prognostic model, the risk score=(0.176723096228585MNX1-AS1 expression)+(-0.614916717648596ALOX12-AS1 expression)+(-0.814201385798827LINC00528 expression)+(-0.436537752110547STAG3L5P-PVRIG2P-PILRB expression). RT-qPCR showed that ALOX12-AS1 (P<0.0001), LINC00528 (P<0.01), STAG3L5P-PVRIG2P-PILRB (P<0.0001), and MNX1-AS1 (P<0.0001) were up-regulated in LSCC tissues compared with para-carcinoma tissues. GSEA analysis indicated KEGGFOCALADHESION (P<0.05) and KEGGECMRECEPTORINTERACTION (P<0.05) pathways were down-regulated in the high-risk group, and KEGGSPLICEOSOME pathway (P<0.05) and KEGGSPLICSOME pathway (P<0.05) were up-regulated in the low-risk group. Correlation analysis between risk score and immune infiltrating cells disclosed that risk score was negatively correlated with plasma cell (R=-0.24, P<0.05), CD8 T cell (R=-0.26, P<0.01) and T follicular helper cell (R=-0.22, P<0.05).Conclusion The prognostic model of LSCC constructed based on m6A-associated lncRNA expression can be used as an effective tool to predict the prognosis of patients with this disease.