Inhibition of CSRP2 Promotes Leukemia Cell Proliferation and Correlates with Relapse in Adults with Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Shujuan Wang,1,* Yu Zhang,1,* Yajun Liu,2 Ruyue Zheng,1 Zhenzhen Wu,1 Yi Fan,1 Mengya Li,1 Menglin Li,1 Tao Li,1 Yafei Li,1 Zhongxing Jiang,1 Chong Wang,1 Yanfang Liu1 1Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Orthopaedics, Brown University, Warren Alpert Medical School/Rhode Island Hospital, Rhode Island, RI, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yanfang Liu; Chong WangDepartment of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, No. 1 Jianshe East Road, Erqi District, Zhengzhou 450052, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail fccliuyf1@zzu.edu.cn; fccwangc@zzu.edu.cnBackground: Relapse is a major obstacle in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Refinement of risk stratification may aid the identification of patients who are likely to relapse. Abnormal cysteine and glycine-rich protein 2 (CSRP2) has been implicated in various cancers, but its function remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of CSRP2 in predicting adult AML recurrence.Methods: RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of CSRP2 in 193 newly diagnosed adult AML patients and 44 healthy controls. The competitive risk model was used to calculate the cumulative incidence of relapse rate (CIR), Kaplan–Meier to calculate the relapse-free survival rate (RFS), and the Cox regression model to perform multivariate analysis. Viral transfection was used to construct AML cell lines with stable knockdown of CSRP2, CCK8 to detect proliferation and drug resistance, flow cytometry to detect cell cycle and apoptosis, and Western blot to detect key molecules in signaling pathways.Results: CSRP2 transcript levels were higher in 193 adult AML compared with 44 healthy controls. In 149 patients who achieved complete remission, those with high CSRP2 transcript levels displayed a lower 2-year CIR and higher 2-year RFS, especiall