scholarly journals Prognosis and Characterization of Immune Microenvironment in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Through Identification of an Autophagy-Related Signature

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denggang Fu ◽  
Biyu Zhang ◽  
Shiyong Wu ◽  
Yinghua Zhang ◽  
Jingwu Xie ◽  
...  

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most common hematopoietic malignancies that has an unfavorable outcome and a high rate of relapse. Autophagy plays a vital role in the development of and therapeutic responses to leukemia. This study identifies a potential autophagy-related signature to monitor the prognoses of patients of AML. Transcriptomic profiles of AML patients (GSE37642) with the relevant clinical information were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) as the training set while TCGA-AML and GSE12417 were used as validation cohorts. Univariate regression analyses and multivariate stepwise Cox regression analysis were respectively applied to identify the autophagy-related signature. The univariate Cox regression analysis identified 32 autophagy-related genes (ARGs) that were significantly associated with the overall survival (OS) of the patients, and were mainly rich in signaling pathways for autophagy, p53, AMPK, and TNF. A prognostic signature that comprised eight ARGs (BAG3, CALCOCO2, CAMKK2, CANX, DAPK1, P4HB, TSC2, and ULK1) and had good predictive capacity was established by LASSO–Cox stepwise regression analysis. High-risk patients were found to have significantly shorter OS than patients in low-risk group. The signature can be used as an independent prognostic predictor after adjusting for clinicopathological parameters, and was validated on two external AML sets. Differentially expressed genes analyzed in two groups were involved in inflammatory and immune signaling pathways. An analysis of tumor-infiltrating immune cells confirmed that high-risk patients had a strong immunosuppressive microenvironment. Potential druggable OS-related ARGs were then investigated through protein–drug interactions. This study provides a systematic analysis of ARGs and develops an OS-related prognostic predictor for AML patients. Further work is needed to verify its clinical utility and identify the underlying molecular mechanisms in AML.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianan Zhou ◽  
Bobin Chen ◽  
Pei Li

Abstract Objective: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a clonal malignant hematological neoplasm with a poor prognosis and high heterogeneity. Many studies have been conducted on the diagnosis and treatment of AML, but the immune microenvironmental mechanisms underlying AML disease progression have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to find the potential genes in tumor microenvironmental mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of AML through relevant biological informatics analysis, and investigate the potential influence of the gene in tumor microenvironment (TME).Methods: AML samples of genes were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. The number of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIC) as well as immune and stromal components in AML cases was calculated using the ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT algorithms. Two methods, COX regression analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, were applied to obtain related genes, and the intersection of related genes was taken to obtain differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was used for explore the biological signaling pathway. CIBERSORT analysis for the proportion of TICs was performed to reveal that TICs which are related of the target gene.Results: Cross-tabulation analysis of univariate COX regression analysis and PPI network known the β2 integrin factor (ITGB2) as a major predictor of AML prognosis. High expression of ITGB2 was correlated with low survival of AML patients. GSEA revealed that the higher the ITGB2 gene expression, the more active the immune-related activity. CIBERSORT analysis of the TICs ratio revealed that 9 kinds of TICs were negatively correlated with the expression of ITGB2, including CD4 memory resting T cells, CD8 T cells, naive B cells, resting NK cells, Plasma cells, follicular helper T cells, resting Mast cells, Eosinophils and activated mast cells. Only monocytes were positively correlated with ITGB2 expression. These results provided further evidence that ITGB2 levels may determine the prognosis of AML patients by modulating the immune status of TME, which provides an additional suggestion for the treatment of AML.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongzhi Zheng ◽  
Yan Huang ◽  
Shaohua Le ◽  
Hao Zheng ◽  
Xueling Hua ◽  
...  

BackgroundA high ecotropic viral integration site 1 (EVI1) expression (EVI1high) is an independent prognostic factor in adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, little is known of the prognostic value of EVI1high in pediatric AML. This study aimed to examine the biological and prognostic significance of EVI1high in uniformly treated pediatric patients with AML from a large cohort of seven centers in China.MethodsA diagnostic assay was developed to determine the relative EVI1 expression using a single real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 421 newly diagnosed pediatric AML patients younger than 14 years from seven centers in southern China. All patients were treated with a uniform protocol, but only 383 patients were evaluated for their treatment response. The survival data were included in the subsequent analysis (n = 35 for EVI1high, n = 348 for EVI1low).ResultsEVI1high was found in 9.0% of all 421 pediatric patients with de novo AML. EVI1high was predominantly found in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (FAB M7), MLL rearrangements, and unfavorable cytogenetic aberrance, whereas it was mutually exclusive with t (8; 21), inv (16)/t (16; 16), CEBPA, NPM1, or C-KIT mutations. In the univariate Cox regression analysis, EVI1high had a significantly adverse 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.821 and 2.401, p = 0.036 and 0.005, respectively]. In the multivariate Cox regression analysis, EVI1high was an independent prognostic factor for the OS (HR = 2.447, p = 0.015) but not EFS (HR = 1.556, p = 0.174). Furthermore, EVI1high was an independent adverse predictor of the OS and EFS of patients with MLL rearrangements (univariate analysis: HR = 9.921 and 7.253, both p < 0.001; multivariate analysis: HR = 7.186 and 7.315, p = 0.005 and 0.001, respectively). Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in first complete remission (CR1) provided EVI1high patients with a tendential survival benefit when compared with chemotherapy as a consolidation (5-year EFS: 68.4% vs. 50.8%, p = 0.26; 5-year OS: 65.9% vs. 54.8%, p = 0.45).ConclusionIt could be concluded that EVI1high can be detected in approximately 10% of pediatric AML cases. It is predominantly present in unfavorable cytogenetic subtypes and predicts adverse outcomes. Whether pediatric patients with EVI1high AML can benefit from HSCT in CR1 needs to be researched further.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruyi Xu ◽  
Yi Li ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Jianwei Qu ◽  
Wen Cao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is characterized as a type of hematological malignancy with poor survival. Accumulated evidence showed that dysregulated immune activities contribute to the pathogenesis of AML and accelerate the development of chemotherapy resistance. Thus, we aimed to construct prognostic signatures based on patients’ immune features to sort out the high-risk group and to identify survival-related checkpoint molecules as potential therapeutic targets.Methods: In the current study, we developed two prognostic signatures based on immune genes and infiltrated fraction of immune cells, respectively, using a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator model, and Cox regression analysis on 415 samples obtained from TCGA and GEO databases. Results: We found the optimum strategy for predicting patients’ survival is combined using these two prognostic immune-related signatures. Through our established signatures, we classified patients into Favorable Risk group and Poor Risk group, who showed significantly different OS and DFS. We further demonstrated the checkpoint molecules’ profile in different risk groups. Conclusions: we constructed a powerful prognostic tool here to help classify high-risk patients in early-stage, who may benefit from additional immune therapies by targeting identified checkpoint molecules.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Wang ◽  
Yuanmin Xu ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
Bo Chen ◽  
Wenqi Yang

Abstract Background Autophagy is an orderly catabolic process for degrading and removing unnecessary or dysfunctional cellular components such as proteins and organelles. Although autophagy is known to play an important role in various types of cancer, the effects of autophagy-related genes (ARGs) on colon cancer have not been well studied. Methods Expression profiles from ARGs in 457 colon cancer patients were retrieved from the TCGA database (https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov). Differentially expressed ARGs and ARGs related to overall patient survival were identified. Cox proportional-hazard models were used to investigate the association between ARG expression profiles and patient prognosis. Results Twenty ARGs were significantly associated with the overall survival of colon cancer patients. Five of these ARGs had a mutation rate ≥ 3%. Patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups based on Cox regression analysis of 8 ARGs. Low-risk patients had a significantly longer survival time than high-risk patients (p < 0.001). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the resulting risk score, which was associated with infiltration depth and metastasis, could be an independent predictor of patient survival. A nomogram was established to predict 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival of colon cancer patients based on 5 independent prognosis factors, including the risk score. The prognostic nomogram with online webserver was more effective and convenient to provide information for researchers and clinicians. Conclusion The 8 ARGs can be used to predict the prognosis of patients and provide information for their individualized treatment.


Blood ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 119 (24) ◽  
pp. 5824-5831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Flávia Tibúrcio Ribeiro ◽  
Marta Pratcorona ◽  
Claudia Erpelinck-Verschueren ◽  
Veronika Rockova ◽  
Mathijs Sanders ◽  
...  

Abstract The prevalence, the prognostic effect, and interaction with other molecular markers of DNMT3A mutations was studied in 415 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) younger than 60 years. We show mutations in DNMT3A in 96 of 415 patients with newly diagnosed AML (23.1%). Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that patients with DNMT3Amutant AML show significantly worse overall survival (OS; P = .022; hazard ratio [HR], 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.81), and relapse-free survival (RFS; P = .005; HR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.13-2.05) than DNMT3Awild-type AMLs. In a multivariable analysis, DNMT3A mutations express independent unfavorable prognostic value for OS (P = .003; HR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.2-2.7) and RFS (P < .001; HR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.4-3.3). In a composite genotypic subset of cytogenetic intermediate-risk AML without FLT3-ITD and NPM1 mutations, this association is particularly evident (OS: P = .013; HR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.16-3.77; RFS: P = .001; HR, 2.65; 95% CI, 1.48-4.89). The effect of DNMT3A mutations in human AML remains elusive, because DNMT3Amutant AMLs did not express a methylation or gene expression signature that discriminates them from patients with DNMT3Awild-type AML. We conclude that DNMT3A mutation status is an important factor to consider for risk stratification of patients with AML.


2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (30) ◽  
pp. 4642-4648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard F. Schlenk ◽  
Konstanze Döhner ◽  
Silja Mack ◽  
Michael Stoppel ◽  
Franz Király ◽  
...  

Purpose To assess the impact of allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) from matched related donors (MRDs) and matched unrelated donors (MUDs) on outcome in high-risk patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) within a prospective multicenter treatment trial. Patients and Methods Between 1998 and 2004, 844 patients (median age, 48 years; range, 16 to 62 years) with AML were enrolled onto protocol AMLHD98A that included a risk-adapted treatment strategy. High risk was defined by the presence of unfavorable cytogenetics and/or by no response to induction therapy. Results Two hundred sixty-seven (32%) of 844 patients were assigned to the high-risk group. Of these 267 patients, 51 patients (19%) achieved complete remission but had adverse cytogenetics, and 216 patients (81%) had no response to induction therapy. Allogeneic HSCT was actually performed in 162 (61%) of 267 high-risk patients, after a median time of 147 days after diagnosis. Graft sources were as follows: MRD (n = 62), MUD (n = 89), haploidentical donor (n = 10), and cord blood (n = 1). The 5-year overall survival rates were 6.5% (95% CI, 3.1% to 13.6%) for patients (n = 105) not proceeding to HSCT and 25.1% (95% CI, 19.1% to 33.0%; from date of transplantation) for patients (n = 162) receiving HSCT. Multivariable analysis including allogeneic HSCT as a time-dependent covariable revealed that allogeneic HSCT significantly improved outcome; there was no difference in outcome between allogeneic HSCT from MRD and MUD. Conclusion Allogeneic HSCT in younger adults with high-risk AML has a significant beneficial impact on outcome, and allogeneic HSCT from MRD and MUD yields similar results.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (15) ◽  
pp. 1486-1497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie D. Freeman ◽  
Robert K. Hills ◽  
Paul Virgo ◽  
Naeem Khan ◽  
Steve Couzens ◽  
...  

Purpose We investigated the effect on outcome of measurable or minimal residual disease (MRD) status after each induction course to evaluate the extent of its predictive value for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) risk groups, including NPM1 wild-type (wt) standard risk, when incorporated with other induction response criteria. Methods As part of the NCRI AML17 trial, 2,450 younger adult patients with AML or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome had prospective multiparameter flow cytometric MRD (MFC-MRD) assessment. After course 1 (C1), responses were categorized as resistant disease (RD), partial remission (PR), and complete remission (CR) or complete remission with absolute neutrophil count < 1,000/µL or thrombocytopenia < 100,000/μL (CRi) by clinicians, with CR/CRi subdivided by MFC-MRD assay into MRD+ and MRD−. Patients without high-risk factors, including Flt3 internal tandem duplication wt/− NPM1-wt subgroup, received a second daunorubicin/cytosine arabinoside induction; course 2 (C2) was intensified for patients with high-risk factors. Results Survival outcomes from PR and MRD+ responses after C1 were similar, particularly for good- to standard-risk subgroups (5-year overall survival [OS], 27% RD v 46% PR v 51% MRD+ v 70% MRD−; P < .001). Adjusted analyses confirmed significant OS differences between C1 RD versus PR/MRD+ but not PR versus MRD+. CRi after C1 reduced OS in MRD+ (19% CRi v 45% CR; P = .001) patients, with a smaller effect after C2. The prognostic effect of C2 MFC-MRD status (relapse: hazard ratio [HR], 1.88 [95% CI, 1.50 to 2.36], P < .001; survival: HR, 1.77 [95% CI, 1.41 to 2.22], P < .001) remained significant when adjusting for C1 response. MRD positivity appeared less discriminatory in poor-risk patients by stratified analyses. For the NPM1-wt standard-risk subgroup, C2 MRD+ was significantly associated with poorer outcomes (OS, 33% v 63% MRD−, P = .003; relapse incidence, 89% when MRD+ ≥ 0.1%); transplant benefit was more apparent in patients with MRD+ (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.31 to 1.69) than those with MRD− (HR, 1.68 [95% CI, 0.75 to 3.85]; P = .16 for interaction). Conclusion MFC-MRD can improve outcome stratification by extending the definition of partial response after first induction and may help predict NPM1-wt standard-risk patients with poor outcome who benefit from transplant in the first CR.


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