Role of RIPK1 in Diffuse Gliomas pathology

Abstract

Purpose The aim of the present work was to investigate the role of Receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) both in mutated and wild type isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) Diffuse Gliomas (DG).Patients and Methods We analyzed RIPK1 mRNA expression in DG databases from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) containing clinical, genomic and transcriptomic information from 661 patients. Transcriptomic studies (mRNA expression levels, correlation heatmaps, survival plots and Gene Ontology and meta-analysis of immune gene signatures) were performed with USC Xena and R. Statistical significance was set at p-values less than 0.05.Results The results showed a lower survival probability in patients belonging to the high RIPK1 expression subgroup compared to those samples with low RIPK1 expression. We also observed a higher expression of RIPK1 in wtIDH samples compared to those with mIDH. In order to further characterize the role of RIPK1 in DG, we performed a Gene Ontology and Pathway Enrichment Analysis using the Xena platform?s differential expression tool. The results showed that RIPK1 is involved in inflammatory and immune responses. Hence, the expression levels of some of the genes involved in the following molecular processes crucial for cancer progression were studied: proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, immune cell infiltration and cell death pathways. Briefly, the results showed significant differences in genes related to increased cellular dedifferentiation, proinflammatory cell death pathways and tumor infiltrating immune cells gene signatures (Welch?s t-test).Conclusion RIPK1 over-expression is associated with a poor prognosis in DG. This fact, together with our results suggest that RIPK1 may play a crucial role in glioma pathogenesis highlighting the need to take into account RIPK1 expression levels for decision making when choosing or designing therapeutic alternatives.