Senescence-associated signature based on immunotherapy response sequencing reveals PPIL3 as target for bladder cancer treatment and prognosis prediction.

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer (Bca) remains a major genitourinary malignancy with unmet needs in immunotherapy optimization. Despite advancements in immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), challenges persist, including low response rates and drug resistance. Emerging evidence links tumor cell senescence to immunotherapy efficacy, yet predictive biomarkers are lacking.

METHODS: We integrated genomic sequencing of real-world Bca patients receiving low-dose paclitaxel combined with immunotherapy to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between responders and non-responders. By intersecting DEGs with senescence-related gene sets (SRGs), we derived senescence-related DEGs (SRDEGs) and constructed a senescence-immunotherapy model (SIM) via TCGA-based multi-regression analysis.

RESULTS: The SIM, validated across three independent cohorts, demonstrated superior prognostic accuracy for overall survival (OS) compared to clinical parameters. High SIM scores correlated with immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments (TME). Drug sensitivity analysis revealed differential responses to cisplatin and paclitaxel between SIM subgroups. Critically, real-world validation confirmed SIM's predictive power for immunotherapy response. Multi-omics profiling further highlighted PPIL3 as a hub gene driving senescence and suppressing proliferation. In vitro experiments showed elevated expression of PPIL3 facilitated the concentration of senescence markers (SA-β-gal) and inhabited tumor cell proliferation.

CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes SIM as a dual-purpose tool for survival prediction and immunotherapy stratification, and suggested that PPIL3 could be a therapeutic target to enhance the efficacy of Bca by regulating senescence.