Overexpression of interleukin-33 is associated with poor prognosis of patients with glioma

Interleukin-33 (IL-33) has shown diagnostic and prognostic values in multiple human cancers. However, there is little knowledge on the role of IL-33 in human gliomas and its association with disease prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the value of IL-33 in the prognosis of glioma patients. The expression of IL-33 was determined and compared in surgical specimens from 86 glioma patients and 16 normal brain tissues. The associations of IL-33 expression with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of glioma patients were assessed. qRT-PCR assay showed higher IL-33 mRNA expression in glioma tissues than in normal brain tissue (p < 0.001), and significantly higher IL-33 mRNA expression was detected in both low- and high-grade glioma tissues relative to normal brain tissues (p < 0.001). Western blotting revealed elevated IL-33 protein levels in glioma tissues compared to those in normal brain tissues, and immunohistochemical staining showed higher IL-33 protein expression in glioma tissues than in normal brain tissues. IL-33 expression correlated with the glioma grade (p < 0.001) and Karnofsky performance status score (p = 0.024), and the glioma patients with high IL-33 expression had a shorter progression-free survival (p < 0.001) and overall survival (p < 0.001) than those with low IL-33 expression. The univariate and multivariate analyses showed that IL-33 overexpression and the glioma grade were independent factors of a poor prognosis in glioma patients. Therefore, IL-33 may be a promising biomarker for the detection of gliomas, and IL-33 expression is useful for predicting the prognosis of the disease.