TCCIA: The Cancer CircRNA Immunome Atlas

TCCIA combines circRNA profiles, immunotherapy response data, and clinical outcomes across multiple cancer types to enable exploration of circRNA-mediated tumor-immune interactions and biomarker discovery in immune checkpoint blockade.

Key Features:

• CircRNA Browsing: Users can browse identified circRNAs in the database.
• CircRNA Abundance and Correlation Visualization: The platform visualizes circRNA expression levels and their correlations.
• Association Analysis: TCCIA performs association analysis between circRNAs and clinical variables.
• Tumor Immune Microenvironment Assessment: The platform assesses the tumor immune microenvironment.
• Tumor Molecular Signature Exploration: Users can explore tumor molecular signatures.
• Treatment Response and Prognosis Evaluation: The platform evaluates treatment response or prognosis.
• Altered CircRNA Identification: TCCIA identifies altered circRNAs in immunotherapy-sensitive and resistant tumors.

Scientific Applications:

• Biomarker Discovery: TCCIA supports identification of circRNA biomarkers for predicting immunotherapy efficacy.
• Immunotherapy Response Evaluation: The platform enables evaluation of treatment response in immune checkpoint blockade cohorts.
• CircRNA-Mediated Tumor-Immune Interaction Research: TCCIA advances understanding of circRNA roles in tumor immunity, particularly in the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway.
• Large-Scale Cohort Analysis: The database facilitates analysis of multicancer cohorts, as demonstrated with melanoma and bladder cancer examples using circTMTC3 and circMGA.

Methodology:

TCCIA construction involved standardized preprocessing of raw sequencing FASTQ files, characterization of circRNA profiles using an ensemble approach based on four established circRNA detection tools, analysis of tumor immunophenotypes, and compilation of immunotherapy response data from diverse cohorts treated with immune checkpoint blockades.