Expression and clinical significance profile analysis of S100 family members in human acute myeloid leukemia

OBJECTIVE: S100 proteins conduce to tumorigenesis and metastasis in a variety of ways, facilitating a local inflammatory environment for development and progression of tumors. However, the expression patterns and the precise roles of the S100 family members contributing to tumorigenesis and the progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain to be elucidated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Herein, the expression of S100 transcripts was analyzed in various tumor types in comparison to the normal controls using the ONCOMINE database, along with the corresponding expression profiles in the different subtypes of AML as retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. We used the Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) database to investigate the prognostic values of S100 mRNA expression in AML. RESULTS: Our results indicated that high expression of S100A4 mRNA was associated with poor overall survival (OS) (p=0.026), while that of S100P was correlated with a favorable OS in AML patients (p=0.028). Other members of the S100 family did not show any correlation to the survival. Moreover, the correlation between the expression levels of S100A4 and S100P and the clinical characteristics and methylation of AML patients was investigated. The results demonstrated that the promoter methylation level of S100A4 (p=0.002) and S100P (p=0.029) was higher in 61-80-years-old group as compared to the other age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, it can be deduced that S100A4 and S100P might be novel biomarkers and crucial prognostic factors for AML.