TITLE:
Diagnostic and prognostic value of plasma level of microRNA-92a in acute myeloid leukemia
AUTHORS:
Nabil El-Halawani, Nahla Hamed, Mohamed Eldafrawi, Zeinab Mourad, Amani Sorour, Omar Ghallab
KEYWORDS:
Acute Myeloid Leukemia; miRNAs; miRNA-92a; miRNA-638; Biomarker
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Molecular Biology,
Vol.4 No.1,
January
3,
2014
ABSTRACT: Background: MicroRNAs
(miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs of ~21 to 23 nucleotides in length that post-transcriptionally regulate mRNA expression. Highthroughput
methodologies have shown deregulated miRNA expression in an increasing number
of human cancers. MiRNA expression patterns have been found to distinguish
tumors of different developmental origin, even better than traditional mRNA
expression profiling. Aim: To
assess the plasma level of microRNA-92a in adult acute
myeloid leukemia and to correlate it with prognostic factors and therapeutic response. Patients and Methods: This
study was carried out on fifty AML patients as well as fifty healthy subjects
as control. Conventional cytogenetics was performed on patients group only
while measurement of the plasma level of miRNA-92a using TaqMan quantitative
RT-PCR with miRNA-638 as endogenous reference for standardization and FLT3/ITD
mutation was performed on patients and
controls. Results: The differences
in the ratio or relative quantitation (RQ) of plasma miRNa-92a to miRNA-638 in
patients group to the control group have confirmed statistical significance.
Also there was significant negative correlation between RQ of miRNA-92a and
white blood count in patient group. Patients who achieved a response after induction chemotherapy had a mean RQ of
miRNA-92a higher than non-responder with statistical significance. With regard
to cytogenetics, favorable risk cytogenetics had meant RQ of miRNA-92a that was
comparable to intermediate risk cytogenetics. While poor risk cytogenetics had
a mean RQ which is significantly lower than both favorable and intermediate
risk cytogenetics. Summary/Conclusions:
Our data suggest the potential importance of the microRNA-92a as noninvasive cancer biomarkers helping in
diagnosis, clinical prediction and therapeutic response.