Abstract
BackgroundHuman leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) has been extensively investigated in various human cancers including glioma. However, the clinical significance of HLA-E expression in glioma patients has not been elucidated. The current study aimed to investigate the association of HLA-E expression with clinicopathological features and survival in patients with diffuse glioma.MethodsA total of 261 glioma patients were enrolled, subsequently, mRNA microarray analysis was conducted to identify the relationship of HLA-E with clinicopathological features and patient survival.ResultsHLA-E was significantly overexpressed in high-grade gliomas compared to low-grade gliomas (LGGs). Moreover, HLA-E expression was significantly higher in diffuse astrocytomas than oligodendrogliomas (p = 0.032, t-test). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were significantly better in LGG patients with low HLA-E expression (p = 0.018 for PFS and p = 0.020 for OS, Log-rank test). Furthermore, HLA-E expression was identified to be an independent prognostic factor by Cox analysis (p = 0.020 for PFS and p = 0.024 for OS).ConclusionsThis is the first study which identified the clinical significance of HLA-E in diffuse glioma. HLA-E expression was correlated with more aggressive tumor grade and histological type and was identified as an independent prognostic biomarker in LGG patients.
Highlights
Human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) has been extensively investigated in various human cancers including glioma
A significant positive correlation of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E expression and tumor grade was identified, HLA-E gene was highly overexpressed in GBMs (0.286 ± 0.787), followed by Anaplastic glioma (AG) (0.176 ± 0.824) and Low-grade glioma (LGG) (− 0.340 ± 0.802)
Significant differences in HLA-E expression could be observed between low-grade and high-grade glioma (HGG, Grade III and IV) tissues (p = 0.001 and p < 0.001, t-test, LGGs versus AGs and LGGs versus GBMs, respectively, Fig. 1), while no significant difference in HLA-E expression was identified between AGs and GBMs (p = 0.477, t-test, Fig. 1)
Summary
Human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) has been extensively investigated in various human cancers including glioma. The current study aimed to investigate the association of HLA-E expression with clinicopathological features and survival in patients with diffuse glioma. According to the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) classification [1], the diffuse gliomas include the WHO grade II/III astrocytic tumors, the grade II/III oligodendrogliomas and the grade IV glioblastomas (GBM). They are the most frequent intracranial tumors in adults, and account for over 80% of primary brain neoplasms [2]. A better understanding on the mechanisms of glioma-mediated immune suppression can help us to develop more selective and effective cancer treatments, i.e. immunotherapies. Remarkable progress has been achieved in this field and various types of immunotherapies, such as adoptive T-cell therapies and immune checkpoint therapies, have been considered as promising new modalities for glioma treatment [7,8,9]
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