Gene expression profile of aquaporin 1 and associated interactors in malignant pleural mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Gene expression profile of aquaporin 1 and associated interactors in malignant pleural mesothelioma, by R. Jagirdar, E.I. Solenov, C. Hatzoglou, et al (Gene, 2013).

The study

• Authors: R. Jagirdar, E.I. Solenov, C. Hatzoglou, P.A. Molyvdas, K.I. Gourgoulianis, S.G. Zarogiannis
• Journal: Gene
• Published: 2013;517(1):99-105
• Cited by: 15 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Overexpression of AQP1 has recently been shown to be an independent prognostic factor in pleural mesothelioma favoring survival. This paper presents a data mining and bioinformatics approach towards the evaluation of the gene expression profile of AQP1 in malignant pleural mesothelioma and of AQP1 associated markers in the context of mesothelioma disease phenotype, CDKN2A gene deletion, sex and asbestos exposure. The data generated were thus again subjected to differential expression profile analysis. Here we report that AQP1 is overexpressed in epithelioid mesothelioma and identify TRIP6 and EFEMP2 as candidate genes for further investigation in mesothelioma.

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In plain English

This study collected no new samples. The authors re-analyzed gene activity data from one earlier study of malignant pleural mesothelioma (Lopez-Rios et al., 2006), held in the Oncomine database: 69 epithelioid, 20 biphasic and 10 sarcomatoid tumors. They examined AQP1, a water-channel gene, and genes listed as its interaction partners in the BioGRID database. AQP1 activity was higher in epithelioid tumors than in biphasic or sarcomatoid tumors (p=0.0005 for each). It was lower in patients whose tumors had lost the CDKN2A gene (p=0.016). It did not differ significantly by sex or by asbestos exposure. Of the partner genes, TRIP6 was higher in epithelioid tumors and lower in asbestos-exposed patients (p=0.009). EFEMP2 was higher in biphasic tumors, in tumors with CDKN2A deletion (p=0.014) and in asbestos-exposed patients (p=0.045). In epithelioid tumors, higher AQP1 went with higher TRIP6 and with lower EFEMP2. The article does not describe the asbestos exposures. The authors concluded that TRIP6 and EFEMP2 are candidate genes linked to AQP1 expression and that further research is needed.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Data-mining and bioinformatics analysis of existing gene expression (microarray) data from one earlier study, plus database analysis of genes that interact with AQP1
• Who was studied: Malignant pleural mesothelioma tumor samples from a single earlier study (Lopez-Rios et al., 2006) in the Oncomine database. Table 1 lists 69 epithelioid, 20 biphasic and 10 sarcomatoid patients. Analyses were performed in August 2012.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure (exposed vs not exposed, as recorded in the dataset), with no fiber types, jobs or doses described. Sex and CDKN2A gene deletion were also used to group patients.
• Main results:
  • AQP1 expression was higher in epithelioid mesothelioma than in biphasic (p=0.0005) and sarcomatoid (p=0.0005) mesothelioma
  • AQP1 expression was higher in biphasic than in sarcomatoid mesothelioma (p=0.026)
  • In epithelioid mesothelioma, AQP1 was the 3rd most over-expressed of 12,624 measured genes
  • AQP1 expression was lower in patients lacking the CDKN2A gene (p=0.016)
  • AQP1 expression did not differ significantly by sex (p=0.15) or asbestos exposure (p=0.45)
  • TRIP6 was higher in epithelioid mesothelioma than in biphasic (p=0.003) and sarcomatoid (p=0.001) mesothelioma
  • Mesothelioma patients exposed to asbestos had lower TRIP6 expression than those not exposed (p=0.009)
  • EFEMP2 was higher in biphasic mesothelioma than in epithelioid mesothelioma (p=0.0044) and sarcomatoid mesothelioma (p=0.02)
  • EFEMP2 was higher in mesothelioma patients with CDKN2A gene deletion (p=0.014)
  • EFEMP2 was higher in mesothelioma patients exposed to asbestos (p=0.045)
  • In epithelioid mesothelioma, AQP1 expression correlated positively with TRIP6 (Spearman's rho 0.32, p=0.009) and inversely with EFEMP2 (rho minus 0.28, p=0.02)
  • MDFI expression did not differ significantly between epithelioid (n=23) and biphasic (n=10) mesothelioma (p=0.9)
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that AQP1 expression follows a pattern resembling previously published survival patterns, and that TRIP6 and EFEMP2 are novel gene targets in mesothelioma significantly associated with AQP1 expression, warranting further research
• Limitations the authors state:
  • MDFI was measured in only a fraction of patients, so it could not be properly analyzed across all three subtypes
  • Three of the network genes had no expression data
  • The proposed link between CDKN2A deletion, reduced AQP1 and impaired pleural fluid clearance has not been tested experimentally
  • The authors stated that further translational and clinical research is needed to explain the findings

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pleural Mesothelioma, Mesothelioma, CDKN2A, Asbestos Exposure, Epithelioid.

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