High expression of HOXA4 in patients with glioma indicates unfavorable clinical outcomes

HOXA4 is a novel oncogene that has been observed in many kinds of tumors, but its role during glioma carcinogenesis and its clinical significance in diagnosing and prognosis human glioma remains unknown. In the present study, the Chinese Glioma Atlas (CGGA)-RNA sequencing database, CGGA microarray, and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-RNA seq data from 1674 glioma patients were obtained from online databases and analyzed using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to detect changes in the expression level of HOXA4 and characterize the relationship between HOXA4 and the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with glioma. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to reveal how HOXA4 regulates tumor-related pathways. HOXA4 mRNA levels in glioma tissue were higher than those in adjacent brain tissue. HOXA4 expression was also closely related to the clinical and molecular characteristics of gliomas, such as tumor grade and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that HOXA4 could regulate cancer-related signal pathways, such as Cell cycle, Cell adhesion molecules cams, and JAK/STAT signaling pathway. Results of in vitro experiments confirmed that knockdown of HOXA4 blocks the cell cycle pathway and inhibits the proliferation, invasion and chemotherapy resistance in gliomas. We concluded that HOXA4 was an independent risk factor for glioma and may have clinical diagnostic potential. Meanwhile, our findings revealed that HOXA4 could be used as a biomarker for glioma diagnosis and treatment.