The evaluation of expression levels of has-miR-155 and has-miR-146a5p in plasma of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)

Introduction: Patients with Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treat with rituximab,cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP). However, the biologicaland clinical heterogeneity within DLBCL seems to affect treatment outcome. Therefore theevaluation of miRNA levels might be useful in predicting treatment response and relapse risk. MiR146a and miR-155 are the modulators of innate and acquired immunity and may play the importantroles in predicting treatment response. As well, miR-155 as potential oncomiR could be targetfor the treatment of DLBCL. The aim of the present study was to compare the expression level ofmiR-146a and miR-155 in plasma of responsive patients and refractory patients with DLBCL.Materials Methods:Patients with DLBCL were randomly selected from Alzahra Hospital, Isfahan, Iran during 2016-2017. The clinical files and laboratory findings of the patients were reviewed for the characteristicssuch as age, sex, disease stage and response to treatment etc. The DLBCL patients were classifiedinto two groups based on RCHOP therapy: responsive patients (n=24) and refractory/relapsedpatients (n=22). Blood was drawn into EDTA-containing tubes (5 ml). Plasma was isolated usingcentrifugation at 300 for 10 min and further spun down at 2,000 for 20 min to remove dead cellsand cell debris. The expression level of miR-146a and miR-155 were evaluated in plasma by realtime PCR.Results: Our findings did not show any significant difference in the expression level of miR-146a and miR155 between refractory/relapsed patients and responsive patients with large diffuse B-celllymphoma (DLBCL) (p=0.06 and 0.6, Mann-Whitney test). As well, the clinicalhistopathological parameters were not correlated with the expression level of miR-146a and miR155 (p<0.05).Conclusion: level of miR-146a and miR-155 in plasma might be useful as promising liquidbiopsy biomarker in predicting treatment response and relapse risk, however, we could not findsignificant differences due to small sample size.