Background:
Cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein 4 (CPEB4) plays an important role in cancer progression. However, it is unknown about clinicopathologic significance of its expression and the expression intensity in gliomas tissues and cell lines.
Aim:
The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential diagnostic and prognostic utility of CPEB4 in human gliomas.
Methods:
Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine the expression dynamics of CPEB4 in gliomas and nonneoplastic brain tissues, while the expression of CPEB4 in the cell lines and fresh tissue samples were measured by Western Blot and real-time PCR.
Results:
CPEB4 was remarkably expressed and related with WHO classification at mRNA and protein levels in 4 glioma cell lines and 4 fresh glioma tissues. Immunohistochemistry analysis demonstrated that CPEB4 expressions in glioma tissues were higher than those in corresponding nonneoplastic brain tissues (P<0.01), and the high expression intensity was remarkbly increased in high-grade gliomas. Moreover, the overall survival of patients with high CPEB4 protein expression (P<0.01) was obviously lower than those with low expressions. Additionally, using the ROC curve, we found the sensitivity, specificity and AUC values of CPEB4 expression levels for high grade gliomas and normal brain tissues were 92.4%, 95.1% and 0.977(p<0.01).
Conclusions:
Our study suggests that CPEB4 was significantly expressed in human gliomas,and the upregulation of CPEB4 proteins were significantly associated with advanced WHO grades. CPEB4 may be a highly sensitive marker for the prognosis in glioma patients and may serve as a promising diagnostic biomarker of gliomas, especially high grade gliomas.