Molecular and clinical characterization of CD163 expression via large-scale analysis in glioma

Shasha Liu; Chaoqi Zhang; Nomathamsanqa Resegofetse Maimela; Li Yang; Zhen Zhang; Yu Ping; Lan Huang; Yi Zhang

doi:10.1080/2162402X.2019.1601478

Molecular and clinical characterization of CD163 expression via large-scale analysis in glioma

Oncoimmunology. 2019 Apr 17;8(7):1601478. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2019.1601478. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Shasha Liu¹, Chaoqi Zhang^{1

2}, Nomathamsanqa Resegofetse Maimela¹, Li Yang¹, Zhen Zhang^{1

3}, Yu Ping¹, Lan Huang¹, Yi Zhang^{1

3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Biotherapy Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
² Department of Thoracic Surgery, National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
³ Cancer Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou,Henan, China.
⁴ School of Life Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
⁵ Henan Key Laboratory for Tumor Immunology and Biotherapy, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.

Abstract

The expression and function of CD163 in glioma are not fully understood. In this report, we collected totally 1323 glioma samples from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) dataset, including 325 RNA-seq data and 301 mRNA microarray data, and 697 glioma samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset to characterize the molecular and clinical features of CD163 in glioma by conducting a large-scale study. We found that CD163 expression was positively associated with the grade of malignancy of glioma. CD163 expression was up-regulated in IDH wild-type glioma and mesenchymal subtype. Gene ontology analysis suggested that CD163-related genes were more involved in immune response and angiogenesis in glioma. Moreover, CD163 showed a positive relationship with stromal and immune cell populations. Kaplan-Meier curves analysis revealed that higher CD163 expression indicated significantly poor survival in glioma and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Pearson correlation analysis revealed that CD163 was robustly associated with the immune checkpoints and other macrophage markers. These results demonstrated that CD163 predicts poor prognosis in glioma patients. Additionally, combination of CD163 and immune checkpoints may impair angiogenesis and reverse dysfunctional phenotypes of T cells, which suggest that CD163 may be a promising biomarker and target for immunotherapeutic strategies. Abbreviations: CGGA: Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas; TCGA: The Cancer Genome Atlas; TAMs: Tumor associated macrophages; IDH: isocitrate dehydrogenase; GBM: glioblastoma.

Keywords: CD163; glioma; immune checkpoint; immunotherapy; prognosis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (NO. 2016YFC1303501) and the Major Science and Technology Projects of Henan Province (NO. 22130001).