Calumenin contributes to epithelial-mesenchymal transition and predicts poor survival in glioma

Abstract

Abstract Background Calumenin (CALU) has been reported to be associated with invasiveness and metastasis in some malignancies. However, in glioma, the role of CALU remains unclear. Methods Clinical and transcriptome data of 998 glioma patients, including 301 from CGGA and 697 from TCGA dataset, were included. R language was used to perform statistical analyses. Results CALU expression was significantly upregulated in more malignant gliomas, including higher grade, IDH wildtype, mesenchymal, and classical subtype. Gene Ontology analysis revealed that CALU-correlated genes were mainly enriched in cell/biological adhesion, response to wounding, and extracellular matrix/structure organization, all of which were strongly correlated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) phenotype. GSEA further validated the profound involvement of CALU in EMT. Subsequent GSVA suggested that CALU was particularly correlated with three EMT signaling pathways, including TGFβ, PI3K/AKT, and hypoxia pathway. Furthermore, CALU played synergistically with EMT key markers, including N-cadherin, vimentin, snail, slug, and TWIST1. Survival and Cox regression analysis showed that higher CALU predicted worse survival, and the prognostic value was independent of WHO grade and age. Conclusions CALU was correlated with more malignant phenotypes in glioma. Moreover, CALU seemed to serve as a pro-EMT molecular target and could contribute to predict prognosis independently in glioma.