High Expression of AHSP, EPB42, GYPC and HEMGN Predicts Favorable Prognosis in FLT3-ITD-Negative Acute Myeloid Leukemia

• Main Authors: Gang-Zhi Zhu, Yong-Long Yang, Yan-Jiao Zhang, Wei Liu, Mu-Peng Li, Wen-Jing Zeng, Xie-Lan Zhao, Xiao-Ping Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cell Physiol Biochem Press GmbH & Co KG 2017-08-01
• Series: Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry
• Subjects: AHSP; EPB42; GYPC; HEMGN; FLT3-ITD; Acute myeloid leukemia
• Online Access: http://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/479837
• ISSN: 1015-8987; 1421-9778

Background/Aims: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous clonal disease and patients with AML who harbor an FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) mutation present several dilemmas for the clinician. This study aims to identify novel targets for explaining the dilemmas. Methods: We analyzed four microarray gene expression profiles to investigate changes in whole genome expression associated with FLT3-ITD mutation. Results: We identified 22 differentially expressed genes which are commonly expressed among all four profiles. Kaplan-Meier analysis of the dataset GSE12417 revealed that low expression of AHSP, EPB42, GYPC and HEMGN predicted poor prognosis (AHSP: P=0.0317, HR=1.894; EPB42: P=0.0382, HR=1.859; GYPC: P=0.0015, HR=2.051; HEMGN: P=0.0418, HR=1.838 in GSE12417 test cohort; AHSP: P=0.0279, HR=1.548; EPB42: P=0.0398, HR=1.505; GYPC: P=0.0408, HR=1.501; HEMGN: P=0.0143, HR=1.630 in GSE12417 validation cohort). When patients were FLT3-ITD positive, the expression of FLT3 was significantly increased (all P<0.05 in four profiles), and correleation analysis of four profiles revealed that the expression of the four candidate genes negatively correlated with FLT3 expression. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that AHSP, EPB42, GYPC and HEMGN may be suitable biomarkers for diagnostic or therapeutic strategies for FLT3-ITD-positive AML patients.