Prognostic significance of MYCN related genes in pediatric neuroblastoma: a study based on TARGET and GEO datasets
Abstract Background Neuroblastoma patients with MYCN amplification are associated with poor prognosis. However, the prognostic relevance of MYCN associated genes in neuroblastoma is unclear. Methods The expression profiles of MYCN associated genes were identified from Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. The enriched transcription factors and signaling pathways were determined using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). The Kaplan-Meier plotter was used to identify the prognostic relevance of MYCN associated genes. Multivariate cox regression and Spearman’s correlation were used to determine the correlation efficiency of MYCN associated genes. Results In TARGET and GSE85047 datasets, neuroblastoma patients with MYCN amplification were associated with worse prognosis. Transcription factor MYC was positively associated with MYCN amplification in GSEA assay. We identified 13 MYC target genes which were increased in neuroblastoma patients with MYCN amplification in TARGET, GSE19274 and GSE85047 datasets. Moreover, six out of the 13 MYC target genes ARMC6, DCTPP1, EIF4G1, ELOVL6, FBL and PRMT1 were associated with bad prognosis of neuroblastoma in TARGET and GSE85047 datasets. Transcription factor E2F1 was regulated by MYCN amplification and associated with the poor prognosis of neuroblastoma. Furthermore, RPS19 in ribosome signaling pathway was also associated with MYCN amplification and correlated with the poor prognosis of neuroblastoma. At last, we showed that most of MYCN target genes were correlated with each other. However, EIF4G1 was an independent prognostic marker. And the prognostic effects of the combination of MYCN amplification and EIF4G1 expression was more significant than MYCN or EIF4G1 alone. Conclusions MYCN target genes ARMC6, DCTPP1, EIF4G1, ELOVL6, FBL, PRMT1, E2F1 and RPS19 had significant prognostic effects in pediatric neuroblastoma patients.