Autophagy-related gene expression is an independent prognostic indicator of glioma

// Huixue Zhang 1, * , Xiaoyan Lu 1, * , Ning Wang 1, * , Jianjian Wang 1 , Yuze Cao 2, 1 , Tianfeng Wang 1 , Xueling Zhou 1 , Yang Jiao 1 , Lei Yang 1 , Xiaokun Wang 1 , Lin Cong 1 , Jianlong Li 3 , Jie Li 1 , He-Ping Ma 4 , Yonghui Pan 5 , Shangwei Ning 6 and Lihua Wang 1 1 Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China 2 Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China 3 Department of Neurosurgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China 4 Department of Physiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA 5 Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China 6 College of Bioinformatics Science and Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Lihua Wang, email: wanglh211@163.com Shangwei Ning, email: ningsw@ems.hrbmu.edu.cn Yonghui Pan, email: aigui1993@126.com Keywords: autophagy, glioma, prognostic signature, survival Received: November 01, 2016     Accepted: April 17, 2017     Published: May 09, 2017 ABSTRACT In this study, we identified 74 differentially expressed autophagy-related genes in glioma patients. Analysis using a Cox proportional hazard regression model showed that MAPK8IP1 and SH3GLB1, two autophagy-related genes, were associated with the prognostic signature for glioma. Glioma patients from the CGGA batches 1 and 2, GSE4412 and TCGA datasets could be divided into high- and low-risk groups with different survival times based on levels of MAPK8IP1 and SH3GLB1 expression. The autophagy-related signature was an independent predictor of survival outcomes in glioma patients. MAPK8IP1 overexpression and SH3GLB1 knockdown inhibited glioma cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and improved Temozolomide sensitivity. These findings suggest autophagy-related genes like MAPK8IP1 and SH3GLB1 could be potential therapeutic targets in glioma.