Downregulation of STOX1 is a novel prognostic biomarker for glioma patients

Recapitulating the Key Advances in the Diagnosis and Prognosis of High-Grade Gliomas: Second Half of 2021 Update

High-grade gliomas (World Health Organization grades III and IV) are the most frequent and fatal brain tumors, with median overall survivals of 24–72 and 14–16 months, respectively. We reviewed the progress in the diagnosis and prognosis of high-grade gliomas published in the second half of 2021. A literature search was performed in PubMed using the general terms “radio* and gliom*” and a time limit from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2021. Important advances were provided in both imaging and non-imaging diagnoses of these hard-to-treat cancers. Our prognostic capacity also increased during the second half of 2021. This review article demonstrates slow, but steady improvements, both scientifically and technically, which express an increased chance that patients with high-grade gliomas may be correctly diagnosed without invasive procedures. The prognosis of those patients strictly depends on the final results of that complex diagnostic process, with widely varying survival rates.

Identification and validation of a novel prognostic signature based on mitochondria and oxidative stress related genes for glioblastoma

BACKGROUND

Mitochondria represent a major source of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells, and the direct increase in ROS content is the primary cause of oxidative stress, which plays an important role in tumor proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and treatment. However, the relationship between mitochondrial oxidative stress-related genes and glioblastoma (GBM) remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the value of mitochondria and oxidative stress-related genes in the prognosis and therapeutic targets of GBM.

METHODS

We retrieved mitochondria and oxidative stress-related genes from several public databases. The LASSO regression and Cox analyses were utilized to build a risk model and the ROC curve was used to assess its performance. Then, we analyzed the correlation between the model and immunity and mutation. Furthermore, CCK8 and EdU assays were utilized to verify the proliferative capacity of GBM cells and flow cytometry was used to analyze apoptosis rates. Finally, the JC-1 assay and ATP levels were utilized to detect mitochondrial function, and the intracellular ROS levels were determined using MitoSOX and BODIPY 581/591 C11.

RESULTS

5 mitochondrial oxidative stress-related genes (CTSL, TXNRD2, NUDT1, STOX1, CYP2E1) were screened by differential expression analysis and Cox analysis and incorporated in a risk model which yielded a strong prediction accuracy (AUC value = 0.967). Furthermore, this model was strongly related to immune cell infiltration and mutation status and could identify potential targeted therapeutic drugs for GBM. Finally, we selected NUDT1 for further validation in vitro. The results showed that NUDT1 was elevated in GBM, and knockdown of NUDT1 inhibited the proliferation and induced apoptosis of GBM cells, while knockdown of NUDT1 damaged mitochondrial homeostasis and induced oxidative stress in GBM cells.

CONCLUSION

Our study was the first to propose a prognostic model of mitochondria and oxidative stress-related genes, which provided potential therapeutic strategies for GBM patients.