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Expression analysis of circulating miR-22, miR-122, miR-217 and miR-367 as promising biomarkers of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

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Abstract

Background

The role of serum-based biomarkers such as microRNAs in cancer diagnosis has been extensively established. This study aimed to determine the expression levels of bioinformatically selected miRNAs and whether they can be used as biomarkers or a new therapeutic target in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Materials and methods

The expression levels of serum miR-22, miR-122, miR-217, and miR-367 in 21 ALL patients and 21 healthy controls were measured using quantitative real-time PCR. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the associated area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess candidate miRNAs’ diagnostic value as a biomarker.

Results

The results showed that miR-217 was markedly decreased in patients with ALL compared to controls. Moreover, miR-22, miR-122, and miR-367 were found to be upregulated. Furthermore, ROC analysis showed that serum miR-217 and miR-367 could differentiate ALL patients from healthy individuals, while miR-22 has approximate discriminatory power that requires further investigation.

Conclusion

These results provide promising preliminary evidence that circulating miR-217 and miR-367 could be considered potent diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic goals in this disease.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. 2.−ΔΔCt = [(Ct gene of Interest-Ct internal control)] sample A – (Ct gene of Interest-Ct internal control) sample B)].

Abbreviations

ALL:

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia

RNA:

Ribonucleic acid

cDNA:

Complementary deoxyribonucleic acid

Rpm:

Revolutions per minute

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

QRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

Ct:

Cycle of threshold

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristic

AUC:

Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve

PTEN:

Phosphatase and tensin homolog

PI3:

Phosphatidylinositol 3

TET-2:

Ten-eleven translocation-2

AML:

Acute myeloid leukemia

Myc:

Myelocytomatosis

MAPK:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase

RUNX2:

Runt-related transcription factor 2

E2F3:

E2F transcription factor 3

KRAS:

Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog

BCL-6:

B-cell lymphoma protein 6

OCT4:

Octamer-binding transcription factor 4

KLF4:

Krüppel-like factor 4

BAX:

B-cell lymphoma protein-2 associated X protein

NFAT:

Nuclear factor of activated T-cells

CREBB:

Cyclic-AMP response element binding protein B

mTOR:

Mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamycin

NOTCH1:

Neurogenic locus notch homolog protein 1

IGF1R:

Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to gratefully thank Ms. Elham Mohseni Nasab for her assistance in collecting patient's samples. This work was based on the Research Project No. 844, as the Master dissertation of Fatemeh Hosseinpour-Soleimani, financed by the Research Council of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran.

Funding

The present research was supported by an MSc grant provided by Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran (project number: 844). The results presented in this publication are part of the Master dissertation of Fatemeh Hosseinpour-Soleimani.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Faculty of Allied Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, SalmanFarsi St, P.O. Box: 7518759577, Bushehr, Iran

    Fatemeh Hosseinpour-Soleimani, Gholamreza Khamisipour & Zahra Derakhshan

  2. Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Allied Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

    Bahram Ahmadi

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  1. Fatemeh Hosseinpour-Soleimani
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  2. Gholamreza Khamisipour
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  3. Zahra Derakhshan
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Contributions

F-HS: Performed material preparation and all experiments, analyzed the data and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. Z-D and B-A: Contributed to bioinformatics analysis and revised the manuscript. Gh-Kh: Contributed to concept and design, financial support, and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gholamreza Khamisipour.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Ethical Approval

The study protocol was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran (no. IR.BPUMS.REC.1397.059, approved October 22, 2019) and all tests were performed according to the relevant guidelines and comply with the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Hosseinpour-Soleimani, F., Khamisipour, G., Derakhshan, Z. et al. Expression analysis of circulating miR-22, miR-122, miR-217 and miR-367 as promising biomarkers of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Mol Biol Rep 50, 255–265 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-022-08016-6

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