Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a common and highly aggressive type of lymphoma. Iron metabolism plays a critical role in human diseases, however, which remains unclear in DLBCL patients. The study is to explore the genetic characteristics and molecular mechanisms underlying ferroptosis in DLBCL patients. METHODS: Based on the GEO, GeneCards database, weighted gene co-expression network analysis was performed on the DLBCL sample and iron metabolism-related datasets. Enrichment analysis (Gene Ontology/Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and gene set enrichment analysis) was used to analyze the expression and possible mechanism of key genes in DLBCL patients. The key genes were identified by quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: The results showed that GATA-binding factor 1 (GATA1), as a key gene of iron metabolism in DLBCL patients, was related to the myeloid cell differentiation and granulocyte differentiation pathways to affect CD4(+) T cells, B cells, and monocytes. GATA1 was strongly positively or negatively correlated with sensitivity to multiple targeted drugs. The patients with high GATA1 expression had shorter overall survival and worse prognosis than the patients with low expression. Additionally, high expression of the GATA1 gene was confirmed in DLBCL patients. CONCLUSIONS: GATA1 as one of the important genes of ferroptosis suggested a significant biomarker for predicting the prognosis of DLBCL patients.