Prognostic implications of cGAS and STING gene expression in acute myeloid leukemia

Qiuling Chen; Yan Hong; WeiFeng Chen; Feng Lin; Jiawei Zeng; Yueting Huang; Li Zhang; Jingwei Yao; Bing Xu

doi:10.3389/ebm.2024.10108

Prognostic implications of cGAS and STING gene expression in acute myeloid leukemia

Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2024 Feb 29:249:10108. doi: 10.3389/ebm.2024.10108. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Qiuling Chen^#^{1

2}, Yan Hong^#², WeiFeng Chen^#³, Feng Lin^{2

3}, Jiawei Zeng^{1

2}, Yueting Huang², Li Zhang², Jingwei Yao², Bing Xu²

Affiliations

¹ The School of Clinical Medicine, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
² Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University and Institute of Hematology, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
³ Department of Hematology, Shantou Central Hospital, Shantou, Guangdong, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most threatening hematological malignances. cGAS-STING pathway plays an important role in tumor immunity and development. However, the prognostic role of cGAS-STING pathway in AML remains unknown. Firstly, The expression of cGAS and STING was analyzed by bioinformatics analysis. Subsequently, Bone marrow samples were collected from 120 AML patients and 15 healthy individuals in an independent cohort. The cGAS and STING expression was significantly elevated in AML patients compared with healthy controls. Patients with high cGAS and STING expression had a higher NRAS/KRAS mutation rate and lower complete remission (CR) rate. High cGAS and STING expression was significantly associated with lower overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Our findings revealed that the expression levels of cGAS and STING in AML are elevated. High expression of cGAS and STING correlated with worse OS and DFS and may be a useful biomarker for inferior prognosis in AML patients.

Keywords: STING; acute myeloid leukemia; cGAS; expression; prognosis.

MeSH terms

Disease-Free Survival
Gene Expression
Humans
Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* / metabolism
Prognosis

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81770126, 81770161, and 81800163), the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology (No. 3502Z20224011, 3502Z20227346, and 3502Z20227261) and the Natural Science Foundation of Xiamen City (20231301).