High expression of Midkine (MK) indicates poor prognosis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Midkine (MDK) in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: More than a Biomarker

Midkine (MDK) is a multifunctional secreted protein that can act as a cytokine or growth factor regulating multiple signaling pathways and being implicated in fundamental cellular processes, such as survival, proliferation, and migration. Although its expression in normal adult tissues is barely detectable, MDK serum levels are found to be elevated in several types of cancer, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this review, we summarize the findings of recent studies on the role of MDK in HCC diagnosis and progression. Overall, studies show that MDK is a powerful biomarker for HCC early diagnosis, as it can differentiate not only between HCC patients and normal individuals but also between HCC patients and patients with other liver pathologies. It is correlated with high recurrence rates and was shown to be valuable for the diagnosis of early-stage HCC, even in patients negative for α-fetoprotein (AFP), the most commonly used biomarker for HCC diagnosis. A comparison with AFP reveals that MDK is inferior to AFP with regard to specificity but significantly superior with regard to sensitivity, which further indicates the need for using both biomarkers for more effective HCC diagnosis.

B-cell ALL with SOX11 gene amplification associates with a worse outcome

Copy number variation (CNV) of certain genes in pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) impacts gene expression levels. Here, we aimed to investigate the potential prognostic utility of CNVs in pediatric B-ALL and T-ALL. Using genomics files representing cases from the TARGET-ALL-P2 dataset, genes commonly involved in ALL development were analyzed for CNVs. Case IDs representing increased copy numbers for SOX11, PDGFRB, and MDK represented a worse overall survival probability specifically for B-ALL (logrank p=0.021, p=0.0052, p=0.019, respectively). These data support the continued investigation of using CNVs for clinical prognostic biomarkers for pediatric B-ALL.

Identification of a Seven-lncRNA-mRNA Signature for Recurrence and Prognostic Prediction in Relapsed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Based on WGCNA and LASSO Analyses

Abnormal expressions of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and protein-encoding messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are important for the development of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This study developed an lncRNA-mRNA integrated classifier for the prediction of recurrence and prognosis in relapsed childhood ALL by using several transcriptome data. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis revealed that green, turquoise, yellow, and brown modules were preserved across the TARGET, GSE60926, GSE28460, and GSE17703 datasets, and they were associated with clinical relapse and death status. A total of 184 genes in these four modules were differentially expressed between recurrence and nonrecurrence samples. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator analysis showed that seven genes constructed a prognostic signature (including one lncRNA: LINC00652 and six mRNAs: INSL3, NIPAL2, REN, RIMS2, RPRM, and SNAP91). Kaplan-Meier curve analysis observed that patients in the high-risk group had a significantly shorter overall survival than those of the low-risk group. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that this signature had high accuracy in predicting the 5-year overall survival and recurrence outcomes, respectively. LINC00652 may function by coexpressing with the above prognostic genes (INSL3, SNAP91, and REN) and lipid metabolism-related genes (MIA2, APOA1). Accordingly, this lncRNA-mRNA-based classifier may be clinically useful to predict the recurrence and prognosis for childhood ALL. These genes represent new targets to explain the mechanisms for ALL.

Clinicopathological features and prognostic value of SOX11 in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is marked by aberrant transcriptional features that alter cell differentiation, self-renewal, and proliferative features. We sought to identify the transcription factors exhibiting altered and subtype-specific expression patterns in B-ALL and report here that SOX11, a developmental and neuronal transcription factor, is aberrantly expressed in the ETV6-RUNX1 and TCF3-PBX1 subtypes of acute B-cell leukemias. We show that a high expression of SOX11 leads to alterations of gene expression that are typically associated with cell adhesion, migration, and differentiation. A high expression is associated with DNA hypomethylation at the SOX11 locus and a favorable outcome. The results indicate that SOX11 expression marks a group of patients with good outcomes and thereby prompts further study of its use as a biomarker.