Elevated expression of mitochondrial transcription elongation factor (TEFM) predicts poor prognosis in low grade glioma-an analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset.

{"sci_version": "1.2", "schema": "https://corpus.bntrg.co.uk/sci/1.0/sci.schema.json", "id": "pmid:35117724", "kind": "science-record", "revision": 5, "content_hash": "sha256:80019b17603e1880ea2685493239e7a5c5247ae1288fe6f363607f92a5dec729", "created_at": "2026-11-01T17:36:51Z", "updated_at": "2026-11-01T22:48:23Z", "generator": {"name": "corpus-assay-engine", "run_id": "reading-sci-2026-11-01"}, "paper": {"state": "complete", "title": "Elevated expression of mitochondrial transcription elongation factor (TEFM) predicts poor prognosis in low grade glioma-an analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset.", "doi": "10.21037/tcr.2020.04.16", "pmid": "35117724", "authors": ["Sufen Li", "Weisi Wang", "Jiaji Zi", "Meitao Sun", "Wen Mei", "Na Yang", "Ruopeng Zhang", "Min Yu", "Wei Xiong"], "journal": "Translational cancer research", "year": 2020, "abstract": "BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial transcription elongation factor (TEFM) is a key molecule for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) replication-transcription switch. TEFM regulates both transcription elongation and RNA processing in mitochondria. However, the expression level and prognostic value of TEFM in low grade glioma (LGG) remain unclear. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical significance and the prognostic value of TEFM in LGG based on publicly available data.\nMETHODS: The relative mRNA expression level of TEFM in non-tumor brain tissues and LGG tissues were retrieved from Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). The RNA-Seq expression of TEFM and clinical information in LGG patients were collected from the updated the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database by using R3.6.1 software. Next, the relationship between the mRNA expression of TEFM and clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival curves of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were implemented for the relationship between the mRNA expression of TEFM and the prognosis of LGG patients. A Cox regression model was performed for the multivariate analysis of the factors affected the prognosis of LGG patients. GEPIA online tool was used to analyze the correlation between TEFM gene expression level and other related mitochondrial regulatory genes in LGG. Finally, The Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed to identify cell processes and molecular signaling cascades affected by TEFM.\nRESULTS: GEPIA analysis showed that the mRNA expression levels of TEFM in LGG were significantly higher than that of non-tumor tissue. Moreover, the mRNA expression of TEFM is significantly correlated with age, World Health Organization (WHO) grade, pathological types, headache history and supratentorial location (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that a high expression level of TEFM mRNA indicated a poor prognosis in OS rate (log-rank, P<0.01). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that age, WHO grade, pathological types and supratentorial location were the independent prognostic factors of LGG patients. The mRNA expression levels of TEFM gene were positively correlated with the TFAM, TFB1M, TFB2M, MTERF1-F4 and NRF1 gene (P<0.01, R>0), but negatively correlated with the POLRMT gene (P<0.01, R=-0.18) in LGG. The GSEA revealed that genes associated with the cell cycle, RNA degradation, spliceosome, and ubiquitin mediated proteolysis signaling pathway were remarkably enriched in higher-TEFM versus lower-TEFM tumors.\nCONCLUSIONS: Our findings disclosed that the expression of TEFM mRNA was significantly upregulated in human LGG tissues compared to non-tumor brain tissues. More importantly, the elevated expression of TEFM mRNA may potentially predict poor OS in LGG patients.", "claims": [{"id": "claim-method", "statement": "Using the Survplot package of R3.6.1 software, Kaplan-Meier method was used to plotted survival curve and log-rank test was performed.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:35117724", "locator": "sections[8] \"Statistical analysis\" paragraph 2", "quote": "Using the Survplot package of R3.6.1 software, Kaplan-Meier method was used to plotted survival curve and log-rank test was performed."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-data-access", "statement": "The RNA-Seq expression (lgg_tcga_rna_seq_v2_mrna, combining level 3 data from Illumina GA and HiSeq platform) and clinical data for LGG patients were downloaded from TCGA data portal (http://cancergenome.nih.gov/) by using the Cgdsr package of R3.6.1 software.", "kind": "methodological", "target": null, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:35117724", "locator": "sections[3] \"Data collection from the TCGA database\" paragraph 2", "quote": "The RNA-Seq expression (lgg_tcga_rna_seq_v2_mrna, combining level 3 data from Illumina GA and HiSeq platform) and clinical data for LGG patients were downloaded from TCGA data portal (http://cancergenome.nih.gov/) by using the Cgdsr package of R3.6.1 software."}], "state": "complete"}, {"id": "claim-target-result", "statement": "High TEFM mRNA expression indicated a poor prognosis in overall survival in low-grade glioma.", "kind": "quantitative", "target": {"value": 0.01, "unit": "p-value", "tolerance": null, "source": "Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that a high expression level of TEFM mRNA indicated a poor prognosis in OS rate (log-rank, P<0.01)."}, "evidence": [{"asset": "source:pmid:35117724", "locator": "sections[0] \"Abstract\" paragraph 3", "quote": "Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that a high expression level of TEFM mRNA indicated a poor prognosis in OS rate (log-rank, P<0.01)."}], "state": "complete"}], "gaps": []}, "experiment": {"state": "partial", "objective": "High TEFM mRNA expression indicated a poor prognosis in overall survival in low-grade glioma.", "steps": [{"id": "read_published_estimate", "order": 1, "name": "Read the published estimate from the source", "kind": "other", "state": "complete", "blocked_on": null, "description": "The claim, method and evidence span published with the source article.", "duration_hours": null, "parameters": {}, "inputs": ["source:pmid:35117724"], "outputs": ["the published estimate and its evidence"], "instruments": [], "reagents": []}, {"id": "obtain_source_data", "order": 2, "name": "Obtain the source data from the named repository", "kind": "data-preparation", "state": "blocked", "blocked_on": "data:accession_absent", "description": "The GEO series accession resolves and its sample accessions are listed. 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