母胚亮氨酸拉链激酶(MELK)在肺腺癌中的表达及其与预后的相关性研究

Expression of maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase(MELK)in lung adenocarcinoma and its correlation with prognosis

目的母胚亮氨酸拉链激酶(MELK)在肺腺癌组织中的表达情况,初步探究MELK与肺腺癌的临床预后关系。探讨MELK作为肺腺癌潜在的生物标志物的可能性。方法通过生物信息学的方法分析MELK在肺腺癌组织及癌旁正常组织中的mRNA水平,并分析其表达与肺腺癌患者的生存率间的关系。回顾性分析70例接受手术治疗的肺腺癌患者的临床病理资料。采用免疫组化法检测肺腺癌组织和癌旁正常组织中的MELK蛋白表达水平,分析其与肺腺癌患者临床病理特征的关系。结果生物信息学分析结果显示,MELK的mRNA在肺腺癌组织中显著高表达,并与患者总生存率(P=0.009)与无病生存率(P=0.039)显著相关。免疫组化结果表明,MELK在肺腺癌组织中的表达明显高于癌旁正常组织。MELK在肺腺癌组织中的高表达与肿瘤大小(P=0.015)和肿瘤分期(P=0.006)相关,而与年龄、性别、吸烟、肿瘤分化程度、淋巴结转移情况的相关性无统计学意义(均P>0.05)。结论肺腺癌组织中MELK呈显著高表达并提示不良预后,且其表达水平与肺腺癌患者肿瘤大小和肿瘤分期有关。MELK有望作为肺腺癌潜在的预后预测因子与治疗靶点。

Objective To detect the expression of maternal embryo leucine zipper kinase(MELK)in lung adenocarcinoma,and to explore the clinical prognosis of MELK and lung adenocarcinoma,andto explore the possibility of MELK as a potential biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma.Methods The mRNA level of MELK in lung adenocarcinoma and normal tissues adjacent to the cancer was analyzed by bioinformatics methods,and the relationship between its expression and the survival rate of patients with lung adenocarcinoma was analyzed.The clinicopathological data of 70 patients with lung adenocarcinoma who underwent surgical treatment were retrospectively analyzed.Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression level of MELK protein in lung adenocarcinoma tissue and normal tissues adjacent to the cancer,and to analyze its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics of patients with lung adenocarcinoma.Results The results of bioinformatics analysis showed that MELK mRNA was significantly highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissue,and was significantly correlated with the overall survival rate(P=0.009)and disease-free survival rate(P=0.039)of patients.Immunohistochemical results showed that the expression of MELK in lung adenocarcinoma tissue was significantly higher than that in normal tissues adjacent to the cancer.The high expression of MELK in lung adenocarcinoma tissue was related to tumor size(P=0.015)and tumor stage(P=0.006),but not related to age,gender,smoking,tumor differentiation,and lymph node metastasis(all P>0.05).Conclusions MELK is highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and indicates a poor prognosis,and its expression level is related to the tumor stage of lung adenocarcinoma.MELK may serve as a new prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic targetfor lung adenocarcinoma.