Prognostic and functional characterization of AQP1 and AQP4 in patients with glioma.

e14063 Background: Gliomas are the most common type of primary brain tumors and are the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The aquaporins (AQPs) are small hydrophobic integral transmembrane water channel proteins, and there is a positive correlation between histological tumor grade and the AQPs expression, implying their potentials as novel independent biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, the prognostic and functional significance of AQPs expression profile in glioma is unclear. Methods: In this study, the expression of AQP1 and AQP4 in gliomas was evaluated based on TCGA website GEPIA. Then the detailed histological phenotypes and clinical significance of AQP1 and AQP4 in glioma were evaluated by website LinkedOmics and UALCAN. With the LinkedOmics, the co-expressed genes of AQP1 and AQP4 were analyzed. And the GO and KEGG Pathway enrichment analysis were carried for these co-expressed genes. Results: Based on the GEPIA website, we found AQP1 and AQP4 have higher expression in lower grade gliomas (LGGs) and glioblastomas (GBMs) than adjacent normal tissues, but the higher expression of these two AQPs only shown poor prognosis in LGGs. With the histological phenotypes and clinical analysis of these two AQPs in LGGs, we found AQP1 shows differential expression in patients with different histological type, ethnicity, race and radiation therapy. And AQP4 only showed differential expression in patients with different histological type and race. Higher expression of AQP1 showed poor prognosis in gender, race and tumor grade, but higher expression of AQP4 only showed poor prognosis in gender and tumor grade. Furthermore, KEGG and GO enrichment analysis for co-expressed genes suggested that these two AQPs were involved in Cell adhension moleculars (CAMs) and Poly ADP-ribose Polymerase (PRAP) signaling pathway. Conclusions: These findings suggest that higher levels of aquaporin 1 and aquaporin 4 expression are associated with a poor prognosis in LGG in different histological phenotypes. These two AQPs also have potential role in LGGs progression. Our results warrant further studies on AQPs that will improve our understanding of the mechanisms associated with pathogenesis and progression of glioma.