MiRNA in the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Pediatric AcuteLymphoblastic Leukemia

Leukemia is a cancer of developing blood cells and is the most commoncancer in children. The most common type of pediatric leukemia is acutelymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ALL is characterized by the rapid growth ofabnormally developing lymphoid cells within the bone marrow.Noncoding RNAs, such as miRNAs, seem to be interesting biomarkers.MiRNAs are single-stranded noncoding RNAs of approximately ۲۲nucleotides in length, which negatively regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptionallevel. MiRNAs have an enormous impact on the function ofany cell, including lymphocytes. Dysregulation of miRNAs has beendiscovered in different solid tumors and leukemia.In this summary, we performed a search in PubMed and Google Scholardatabases to find studies that assessed the expression profile of miRNAs inchildren with ALL.Expression levels of two tumor suppressor miRNAs, miR-۳۲۶ and miR-۲۰۰c,appear to be significantly downregulated in BM mononuclear cells ofpediatric ALL patients at diagnosis. These findings suggest that miR-۳۲۶ andmiR-۲۰۰c could act as potentially reliable non-invasive diagnosticbiomarkers for ALL children.Nabhan and colleagues investigated the expression levels of miR-۱۸۱a.Serum samples of the ALL group showed a highly significant decrease inexpression levels of miR-۱۸۱a compared to those found in healthy children.A multivariate analysis of miR-۲۴ expression defined miR-۲۴ as anindependent prognostic marker. Upregulation of miR-۲۴ was associated witha significantly shorter overall survival (OS). These results strongly suggestthat high miR-۲۴ expression levels could be used as a reliable and effectivebiomarker of poor prognosis ALL.

کلیدواژه ها:

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ، miRNAs ، biomarker