Abstract
BACKGROUND: LUZP2 is a protein limitedly expressed in the brain and spinal cord, while there are few studies on it in brain tumors. Low-grade glioma (LGG) is one of the most common brain tumors. However, the biological behavior of LGG is not very clear at present. This study was aimed at exploring the role of LUZP2 in LGG. METHODS: By data mining in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA), the expression, clinical characteristics, and potential regulatory mechanism of LUZP2 in LGG were assessed. The regulatory miRNAs of LUZP2 were predicted using miRDB, TargetScan, and miRTarBase. Meanwhile, the potential biological function of coexpressed genes was investigated by GO and KEGG analyses. RESULTS: LUZP2 expression was downregulated with the increase of tumor grade (p < 0.05). Low LUZP2 expression independently predicted poor OS in LGG in TCGA cohort and the CGGA part B and part C cohorts (all p < 0.001). Additionally, LUZP2 was targeted by miR-142-5p according to 2 prediction databases and 1 validated database, which was negatively related to LUZP2 mRNA expression (p < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier analyses demonstrated that low miR-142-5p expression was significantly associated with poor OS (p < 0.001). Furthermore, coexpression genes of LUZP2 were significantly involved in nervous system development and metabolic pathways. CONCLUSIONS: LUZP2 may be crucial for nervous system extracellular matrix development and serve as an important clinical biomarker for LGG patients. miR-142-5p upregulation could be the upstream regulator that contributed to LUZP2 downregulation.