Characterization of the gene expression profile in younger and older low-grade glioma patients

Low-grade gliomas (LGG) are the slowest growing type of brain cancer that often affects young adults. Of all LGG cases, older patients were associated with the poor prognosis compared to younger patients. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this association remains unclear. Here, we compared genes expression profiles between younger (age≤50) and older (age > 50) patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and demonstrate the age-related gene expressions. Pathway and gene set enrichment analysis reveal that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between tumors of older and younger patients have been involved in cancer-related biological procedures, such as, transcriptional misregulation in cancer, nucleotide synthesis, mTOR, and DNA damage repair signaling. We also demonstrated that older patients have higher expression of Mitosis Kinase Score (MKS) and Tumor Inflammation Signature (TIS) which reflects high cell proliferation and high immune cell activity; respectively. The comprehensive characterization of gene-expression profiles in younger versus older LGG may explain the age-related prognosis and facilitate the development of potential therapeutic biomarkers for LGG. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors