Objective  To explore the relationship between differential expression of genes related to the tuberculosis pathway and the prognosis and tumor immune microenvironment of lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), and identify predictive genes and immune factors for tuberculosis combined with LUSC, and to find new therapeutic targets.

Methods  The pathway (map05152) genes related to the tuberculosis were obtained based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. The gene expression profiles of 374 LUSC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were enrolled and normalized. The COX proportional hazards model was constructed and validated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The Nomogram was used to analyze the prognosis of LUSC patients in different risk subgroups. Finally, the differences between tumor microenvironment and single sample immune infiltration enrichment caused by tuberculosis pathway genes in different risk subgroups were analyzed.

Results  The CASP9, FADD, PLK3 genes were correlated with the prognosis of LUSC. Patients with high risk scores were more likely to experience differences in immune cell infiltration and enrichment, especially, these important immune cells: central memory CD4 T, effector memory CD4 T, gamma delta T, natural killer, and natural killer T presented a low enrichment state.

Conclusion  CASP9, FADD and PLK3 genes can be used to evaluate the prognosis of LUSC patients and identify the changes in tumor immune microenvironment based on risk scores. Potential therapeutic targets could be identified for LUSC and tuberculosis patients by targeting immune cells with enriched differences in high risk group.

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