High Expression Levels of <i>ACTN1</i> and <i>ACTN3</i> Indicate Unfavorable Prognosis in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Abstract

<b>Background</b>: Actinins are major cytoskeletal proteins that mediate sarcomere function, and they also have important non-muscle functions such as regulating cytokinesis, cell adhesion and migration. There are four isoforms of actinins in mammals (ACTN1-4). Recently, the relationship between actinins and cancer has been discovered in many types of malignancy, yet their prognostic significance in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains unclear. <b>Methods</b>: We collected data of 155 de novo AML patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database; 85 patients received chemotherapy only and 70 patients underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). We divided each treatment groups into sub-groups based on the median expression levels of <i>ACTN1-4</i>. <b>Results</b>: Survival analysis showed that in the chemotherapy-only group, high <i>ACTN1</i> and <i>ACTN3</i> expression were associated with shorter event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) (p<0.01). Multivariate analysis suggested that high expression of <i>ACTN1</i> and <i>ACTN3</i> (p<0.05) were independent poor prognostic factors. In the allo-HSCT group, <i>ACTN1-4</i> expression had no impact on survival. <b>Conclusions</b>: Our study suggested that high expression levels of <i>ACTN1</i> and <i>ACTN3</i> adversely affected the survival of AML patients, but their harmful impact could be overcome by allo-HSCT.