Gene expression microarray analysis reveals prognostic markers of survival in high grade astrocytomas.

Objective: High grade astrocytoma (HGA) as an aggressive brain tumor, is always correlated with poor prognosis. In this paper, we aimed to explore the genetic prognostic biomarkers for HGA. Methods: The genome-wide expression profile of 26 brain tumor samples obtained from 26 patients with HGA was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus. The risk genes for prognosis of HGA were identified and verified by the data in TCGA database. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of risk factor genes was constructed and significant module was screened. Function and pathway annotations were performed for risk genes and drug target genes were further analyzed. Results: A total of 598 genes were identified as significant risk genes for prognosis, such as checkpoint kinase 1, potassium inwardly-rectifying channel, subfamily J, member 6, leukocyte receptor tyrosine kinase and uncharacterized LOC283887. All risk genes for prognosis of HGA were significantly enriched in cell cycle, mitotic as well as mitotic anaphase. While the genes in the network module mainly participated in functions such as cell cycle, mitotic cell cycle and cell cycle process. Moreover, the genes in the network module mainly participated in the pathways such as cell cycle and cell cycle, mitotic. Drug target analysis showed that seven genes were recorded in Drugbank database, and there were as many as 32 drug records of CHEK1. Conclusion: The prognostic effect of CHEK1 was validated based on the expression profile data of 615 low-grade glioma and glioblastoma samples. We proposed CHEK1 as prognostic biomarker for HGA. Our work might provide the candidate target for HGA therapy.