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High IFITM3 expression predicts adverse prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 27, pages 38–44 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignancy caused by the uncontrolled and dysregulated clonal expansion of abnormal myeloid primordial cells. In general, the prognosis of AML remains poor despite new discoveries in its pathogenesis and treatment. It is crucial to find early and sensitive biomarkers and continue to explore active targeted treatments. Interferon-induced transmembrane protein (IFITM) family is an important part of the interferon signaling pathway and participate in the regulation of immune cell signaling, adhesion, cancer, and liver cell migration. However, the clinical and prognostic value of the IFITM family in AML has rarely been studied. We screened The Cancer Genome Atlas database and found 155 AML patients with IFITM family (IFITM1–5) expression data. In patients who only received chemotherapy, those with high IFITM3 expression had significantly shorter event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) than patients with low expression (all P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that high IFITM3 expression was an independent risk factor for EFS and OS in patients only received chemotherapy (all P < 0.05). In patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), however, all IFITM members had no impact on either EFS or OS. In conclusion, our study elucidated that high IFITM3 expression could be an adverse prognostic factor for AML, whose effect might be overcome by allo-HSCT.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81500118 and 61501519), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (2016M600443), and Jiangsu Province Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (1701184B).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yan Liu, Rongjian Lu, and Wei Cui

  2. These authors jointly supervised this work: Zhiheng Cheng and Lin Fu

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510260, China

    Yan Liu, Tingting Qian, Liang Quan, Xu Ye & Lin Fu

  2. Translational Medicine Center, Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Kaifeng, 475000, China

    Yan Liu & Longzhen Cui

  3. Translational Medicine Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510260, China

    Yan Liu, Tingting Qian, Liang Quan & Lin Fu

  4. Department of Stomatology, The Fifth Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital (Former 307th Hospital of the PLA), Beijing, 100071, China

    Rongjian Lu

  5. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Beijing Haidian Hospital, Beijing Haidian Section of Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100080, China

    Wei Cui & Yue Pan

  6. Department of Medicine, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI, 48073, USA

    Yifan Pang

  7. Zhongyuan Union Clinical Laborotory Co., Ltd, Tianjin, 300304, China

    Chaojun Liu

  8. Immunoendocrinology, Division of Medical Biology, Department of Pathology and Medical Biology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Yifeng Dai

  9. Life Sciences Institute and Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Yang Jiao

  10. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China

    Jinlong Shi

  11. Department of Pathology and Medical Biology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Zhiheng Cheng

  12. Department of Hematology, Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Kaifeng, 475000, China

    Lin Fu

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  1. Yan Liu
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Correspondence to Lin Fu.

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Liu, Y., Lu, R., Cui, W. et al. High IFITM3 expression predicts adverse prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia. Cancer Gene Ther 27, 38–44 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41417-019-0093-y

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