Elevated TAF12 Expression Predicts Poor Prognosis in Glioma Patients: Evidence from Bioinformatic and Immunohistochemical Analyses

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript titled: “Elevated TAF12 expression predicts poor prognosis in glioma patients: evidence from bioinformatic and immunohistochemical analyses” is well written. The manuscript is based on a well-constructed scientific concept and carried out the studies are well. However, the present manuscript lacks the clinical significance of the expression of TAF12 with respect to the glioma response to immune therapy. The present manuscript would be benefited by addressing the points below. I would suggest accepting the manuscript after minor revision. 

 

Comments:

           

·      Authors have shown that TAF12 expression is positively associated with the expression of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the glioma tumor microenvironment; I suggest authors show the prognostic valuation of TAF12 expression in tumors with respect to the glioma patient with immune therapy.

·      The introduction in the manuscript is slightly short; kindly extend it a bit more.

·      I suggest authors add the molecular mechanism behind the upregulation of TAF12 in the manuscript.

·      Some of the citations in the manuscript are old; kindly add recent references.

Author Response

Q1.Authors have shown that TAF12 expression is positively associated with the expression of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the glioma tumor microenvironment; I suggest authors show the prognostic valuation of TAF12 expression in tumors with respect to the glioma patient with immune therapy.

Thanks for your suggestion. In our study, we only speculate that TAF12 expression may help to guide personalized patient immunotherapy because TAF12 expression was positively correlated with both PD-L1 expression and the TMB(line 424-430). but by far, most clinical attempts at glioma immunotherapy have met with little success, so I can’t find the public datasets about glioma patient with immunotherapy. It’s difficult to evaluate the prognostic valuation of TAF12 expression in glioma patients who receive immunotherapy. In the future, it is indispensible to validate our bioinformatics analysis in experimental research and confirm the clinical prognostic valuation of TAF12 expression in tumors with respect to the glioma patient with immune therapy.

Q2.The introduction in the manuscript is slightly short; kindly extend it a bit more.

Thanks for your suggestion. According to the reviewer’s opinion, we found two reports about TAF12 in glioma, and we added them in the new version. line55-61.

 Q3.I suggest authors add the molecular mechanism behind the upregulation of TAF12 in the manuscript.

According to your suggestion, we searched the literatures. In previous studies, down-regulation of miR-26b has been observed in head cancer, and TAF12, as one of genes were found to be the targets of miR-26b in colorectal cancer¹, we speculate the molecular mechanism behind the upregulation of TAF12 might related to miR-26b. Furthermore, TAF12 as an epigenetic-related transcription factor genes, increased significantly in adult human olfactory bulb neural stemcells (OBNSC) when compared with human embryonic neural stemcells (hENSC). Transcription factor genes associated with neurogenesis, proliferation and differentiation in above two stemcells².

In our manuscript, the upregulation of TAF12 expression was found from large-scale population statistics. We didn’t study the mechanism. The main idea of our article is not to talk about the molecular mechanism of the upregulation of TAF12. Moreover, the story of molecular mechanism behind the upregulation of TAF12 could be another big topic and need to do lots of experiments, so we think it isn’t appropriate to put related content above in discussion. I hope you could understand. We truly appreciate your suggestion and hope you could agree with us.

1. Ma YL, Zhang P, Wang F, et al. Human embryonic stem cells and metastatic colorectal cancer cells shared the common endogenous human microRNA-26b. J Cell Mol Med 2011; 15(9): 1941-54.
2. Marei HE, Ahmed AE. Transcription factors expressed in embryonic and adult olfactory bulb neural stem cells reveal distinct proliferation, differentiation and epigenetic control. Genomics 2013; 101(1): 12-9.

Q4.Some of the citations in the manuscript are old; kindly add recent references.

Thanks for your reminder. I have deleted 4 old and renewed 4 recent references in our new version(References 28,29,35,36), but some old literatures are quiet classic, we keep them in the article.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors

I have finished the review of your manuscript. The results are clearly explained, and the findings are well supported. I have some minor comments though.

1) I would recommend that the quality/clarity of figures be improved.
2) Please include a scale bar in figure 1E.

Thank you

Author Response

Q1. I would recommend that the quality/clarity of figures be improved.

Thanks for your suggestion. We rechecked all original images and changed the resolution of the pictures to 300dpi. We will reupload the new pictures.

Q2.Please include a scale bar in figure 1E.

Thanks for your reminder. We have added scale bar in figure 1E.

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript titled " Elevated TAF12 expression predicts poor prognosis in glioma patients: Evidence from bioinformatic and immunohistochemical analyses" is well executed and designed well. The authors looked 3 different databases for the TAF12 mRNA expression glioma of several hundred samples in TCGA, CGGA and a few hundred in GSE16011. They showed TAF12 is associated with poor clinical response and reduced survival time. 

Major concern: The association of TAF12 with high-risk glioma and reduced survival time is already reported in the arXiv:2011.00659 by Navodini Wijethilake et.al 2020. The authors did not refer to work in this manuscript, which is not acceptable. Navodini Wijethilake et.al 2020. also alluded IDH1/IDH2 to TAF12 in the article. 

Minor error: The Table1 spelling mistake word deletion.

 

Author Response

Q 1: The association of TAF12 with high-risk glioma and reduced survival time is already reported in the arXiv:2011.00659 by Navodini Wijethilake et.al 2020. The authors did not refer to work in this manuscript, which is not acceptable. Navodini Wijethilake et.al 2020. also alluded IDH1/IDH2 to TAF12 in the article. 

Thanks so much for letting us know this report. We couldn’t find it from PUBMED, but retrieved it from google scholar based on the information you provided. I have added the report in our new version(line55-61,deleted line 360-361,and added line 373-374). It’s our fault that we leave out such important research. Finally, I would let you know I am amazed by your grasp of the latest professional views and your super strong ability to search literatures. Please let us express our gratitude to you again.

Q 2: The Table1 spelling mistake word deletion.

Sorry for our mistake and thanks a lot for pointing them out. We have deleted “d” in the table1. (Line154 in new version)

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

In the current version of the manuscript, the authors addressed previously raised concerns. Therefore I recommend this version for acceptance.