Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 17 pp 7026—7037

Clinical significance and potential mechanism of heat shock factor 1 in acute myeloid leukemia

Chunyi Lyu1, *, , Qian Wang2, *, , Xuewei Yin1, , Zonghong Li1, , Teng Wang3, , Yan Wang3,4, , Siyuan Cui4, , Kui Liu4, , Zhenzhen Wang3,4, , Chang Gao1, , Ruirong Xu3,4, ,

  • 1 First Clinical Medical College, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, People's Republic of China
  • 2 College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, People's Republic of China
  • 3 Shandong Key Laboratory of Hematology of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine of Health Commission, Institute of Hematology of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, People's Republic of China
  • 4 Department of Hematology, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, People's Republic of China
* Equal contribution

Received: November 8, 2021       Accepted: August 17, 2022       Published: September 6, 2022      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204267
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2022 Lyu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) is now considered to have the potential to be used as a prognostic biomarker in cancers. However, its clinical significance and potential function in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain underexplored.

Methods: In this study, the expression pattern and clinical significance of HSF1 in AML were examined by integrating data from databases including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), The Genotype–Tissue Expression (GTEx), Vizome, Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Linkedomics was applied to collect HSF1–related genes in AML. GeneMANIA was applied to outline HSF1–related functional networks. CancerSEA analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) were performed to mine the potential mechanism of HSF1 in leukemogenesis. Single–sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA) was applied to explore the correlation between HSF1 and infiltrating immune cells in AML.

Results: HSF1 expression was elevated in AML compared to healthy controls and indicate a poor overall survival. HSF1 expression was significantly correlated with patients age, associated with patient survival in subgroup of bone marrow blasts (%) >20. Functional analyses indicated that HSF1 plays a role in the metastatic status of AML, and is involved in inflammation–related pathways and biological processes. HSF1 expression was significantly correlated with the immune infiltration of nature killer cells and T cell population.

Conclusion: HSF1 plays a vital role in the molecular network of AML pathogenesis, and has the potential to be a biomarker for prognosis prediction.

Abbreviations

HSF: heat shock factor; HSP: heat shock protein; HSR: heat shock response; AML: acute myeloid leukemia; CLL: chronic lymphocytic leukemia; TCGA: The Cancer Genome Atlas; GETx: Genotype–Tissue Expression; CCLE: Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia; GEO: Gene Expression Omnibus; KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes; GSEA: Gene Set Enrichment Analysis; ssGSEA: single–sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis; OS: overall survival; OR: odds ratio; ROC: receiver operating characteristic; AUC: area under the curve; BM: bone marrow; PB: peripheral blood; WBC: white blood cell; FDR: false discovery rate; DEG: differentially expressed genes; DC: dendritic cell; NK: nature killer; Th: T helper; Tcm: T central memory; Tem: T effector memory; TFH: T follicular helper; Tgd: T gamma delta.