{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]],"date-time":"2026-01-08T12:40:18Z","timestamp":1767876018568,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]],"date-time":"2026-01-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767830400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004826","name":"Beijing Natural Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["7252012"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["7252012"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004826","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics","award":["SKLP-X202402"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SKLP-X202402"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics","award":["SKLP-O202401"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SKLP-O202401"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Acrolein, a highly reactive environmental toxicant widely present in urban air and tobacco smoke, has been implicated in the development of multiple malignancies. In oral tissues, chronic acrolein exposure induces oxidative stress, inflammation, and genetic mutations, all of which are closely linked to the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Although accumulating evidence indicates a strong association between acrolein exposure and OSCC, its prognostic significance remains poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed transcriptome data to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between tumor and adjacent normal tissues, and screened acrolein-related candidates by intersecting DEGs with previously identified acrolein-associated gene sets. Functional alterations of these genes were assessed using Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA), and a protein\u2013protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to identify key regulatory genes. A prognostic model was developed using Support Vector Machine\u2013Recursive Feature Elimination (SVM-RFE) combined with LASSO-Cox regression and validated in an independent external cohort. Among the acrolein-related DEGs, four key genes (PLK1, AURKA, CTLA4, and PPARG) were ultimately selected for model construction. Kaplan\u2013Meier analysis showed significantly worse overall survival in the high-risk group (p &lt; 0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis further confirmed the strong predictive performance of the model, with area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.72 at 1 year, 0.72 at 3 years, and 0.75 at 5 years. Furthermore, the high risk score was significantly correlated with a \u2018cold\u2019 immune microenviroment, suggesting that acrolein-related genes may modulate the tumor immune microenvironment. Collectively, these findings highlight the role of acrolein in OSCC progression, suggesting the importance of reducing acrolein exposure for cancer prevention and public health, and call for increased attention to the relationship between environmental toxicants and disease initiation, providing a scientific basis for public health interventions and cancer prevention strategies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms27020632","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]],"date-time":"2026-01-08T10:10:50Z","timestamp":1767867050000},"page":"632","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Transcriptomic Analysis Identifies Acrolein Exposure-Related Pathways and Constructs a Prognostic Model in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Yiting","family":"Feng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of Lifeomics, Beijing 102206, China"},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lijuan","family":"Lou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of Lifeomics, Beijing 102206, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Liangliang","family":"Ren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Medical Proteomics, National Center for Protein Sciences (Beijing), Beijing Institute of Lifeomics, Beijing 102206, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1342","DOI":"10.1002\/mnfr.201100279","article-title":"Acrolein\u2013a pulmonary hazard","volume":"55","author":"Bein","year":"2011","journal-title":"Mol. 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