Abstract
Medulloblastoma is one of the most prevalent brain tumors in children. Due to alterations in the gene expression patterns, medulloblastomas display diversity in the transcriptional, genetic, and clinical markers. However, these markers are few. Hence, there is an urgent need for other molecular, preferentially, non-invasive markers to propose the personalized treatment. One of the putative markers can be the mitochondrial ribosomal protein MRPS18-2.
 Purpose: In the present work we aimed to study expression of the MRPS18 family genes at mRNA and protein levels, in serum and tissue of the medulloblastoma. 
 Materials and methods. To do so, a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to assess the relative expression of RB and MRPS18 family genes at mRNA levels in patient sera and tissue. Protein signals were detected by immunohistochemistry. The relative expression of MRPS18 genes was lower, when assessed in serum of the tumor patient compared with the control.
 Results. Thus, MRPS18-1 expression level, detected in serum, is up to 8.5-folds lower than in the control sample, while in tissue it is quite similar in both samples. The MRPS18-2 gene was detected at up to 26-fold lower levels in the serum of the tumor patient. Importantly, MRPS18-2 and MRPS18-3 are elevated by 13- and 7.2-fold, respectively, in tumor tissue, compared to the control. Moreover, the MRPS18-2 protein signal is dramatically elevated in medulloblastoma cells, compared with the conditionally healthy brain tissue.
 Concluding, the members of the MRPS18 protein family, especially MRPS18-2, are the putative candidates for molecular prognostic markers. More experiments should be done on a study on this family, and on a large cohort.
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