IMR Press / JIN / Volume 21 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.31083/j.jin2103086
Open Access Original Research
Androgen Receptor Activity Is Associated with Worse Survival in Glioblastoma
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1 Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, CP 38320 S/C de Tenerife, Spain
2 Clinical Neuroscience Research Group, Health Science Campus, University of La Laguna, CP 38320 S/C de Tenerife, Spain
3 Biochemistry laboratory, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, CP 38320 S/C de Tenerife, Spain
*Correspondence: jplabel@gobiernodecanarias.org; jplata5@hotmail.com (Julio Plata-Bello)
Academic Editor: Masaru Tanaka
J. Integr. Neurosci. 2022, 21(3), 86; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.jin2103086
Submitted: 10 February 2022 | Revised: 27 February 2022 | Accepted: 22 March 2022 | Published: 22 April 2022
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Some evidence about the role of the androgen receptor (AR) in pathogenesis of glioblastoma have been reported, but no study has focused on measuring the activity of the AR in GB. Therefore, the aim of this work is to study the role of AR and its activity as prognostic biomarkers in glioblastoma (GB). Methods: Molecular and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas database were used. The AR-expression at protein-level was obtained from reversed phase protein array (RPPA) assays. The AR-activity was determined by calculating the AR-score, an index calculated by using the expression (at RNA-level) of 13 androgen-responsive-genes. Univariate and multivariate Cox-regression analyses were performed. Finally, a correlation analysis was conducted between protein expression data and the AR-score. Results: Two-hundred and thirty-three patients were included. RPPA data showed a mean AR abundance of 0.027(Statistical Deviation = 0.38) in GB. The univariate Cox-regression analysis showed that the AR-Score was associated with a worse prognosis (Hazard Ratio (HR) = 1.070) while the AR-expression did not show any relationship with survival (HR = 0.869). The association of the AR-score with worse overall survival (OS) was still significant in the multivariate analysis (HR = 1.054). The highest correlation coefficients between the AR-score and RPPA were identified in a group of proteins involved in apoptotic process regulation. Conclusions: GB patients with a high AR-activity present a worse prognosis in terms of OS. Thus, the activity of the AR may have a pathogenic role in GB. In this regard, the activation of the AR in GB may be associated with a dysregulation of apoptosis.

Keywords
glioblastoma
high grade glioma
androgen receptor
survival
prognosis
hormones
androgens
primary glioblastoma
androgenic pathway
apoptosis
Figures
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