and Expression in Childhood -Rearrangement Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

The prognosis of over 90% of infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remains poor because of harboring the mixed-lineage leukemia gene () fusion. To give insight into the critical coexpressed genes related to the -rearrangement (-R) gene in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, we integrated different bioinformatic methods. First, the gene expression data of -R ALL and normal samples from GSE13159 and GSE13164 were analyzed using "compare" function in the Oncomine database. The top 150 overexpressed and 150 underexpressed genes were identified by the Oncomine website. Then, we employed the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) to define functional genes for the 300 DEGs. The Cytoscape identified two important networks for overexpressed genes, including 35 functional genes, among which , , , , , , and were considered as the key genes because of their high expression in -R ALL compared to the expression in other subclassification of leukemia in the MILE dataset. Further analysis of GSE68720, GSE19475, and Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) ALL (phase I) database confirmed the robust expression of 7 key genes in -R compared to MLL-germline (-G) childhood ALL. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that childhood ALL patients with high and expression had significantly poor overall survival. These findings suggest that and represent two potential therapeutic targets for childhood -R ALL.