Analysis of the Differential Expression and Prognostic Relationship of DEGs in AML based on TCGA Database

Abstract

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a common and lethal hematological malignant hyperplastic disease originating from hematopoietic stem cells. The purpose of this study is to obtain the key AML survival-related differentially expressed gene. Methods: RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data and clinical information of patients were downloaded from the TCGA-LAML database. We focused the intersectional genes of survival-related DEGs, cytogenetics risk related-DEGs, and the top 10 pathways of both up- and down-regulated of Normalization Enrichment Score (NES). Multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to analyze the independent factors for AML. The Kaplan–Meier and Nomogram analyses were plotted to predict and compare survival of AML patients. The validation of DEGs were performed by a clinical follow-up investigation.Results: 151 RNA-Seq samples for 60,488 genes and 200 clinical samples were selected from the TCGA-database. After filtering with the conditions about survival-related DEGs, cytogenetics-risk associated, and predicted in top 10 pathways, IGHM was the only remaining gene. Cox analysis showed that IGHM expression and age displayed were intendent factors to the patients’ survival (P<0.05). Higher IGHM expression was identified in poor survival group (P<0.05), with 68%, 43%, and 30% in 1, 3, and 5-year survival investigation. GSEA analysis revealed that IGHM were mainly enriched in the immune response. In Chinese population, IGHM displayed its significance not in the childhood AML patients but in adult ones. Conclusion: High expression of IHGM gene is an independent risky factor for the survival of patients with AML, which can be an important molecular marker for AML prognosis.