Abstract
BackgroundAcute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disorder characterized by a rapid onset of symptoms attributable to bone marrow failure due to clonal proliferation of primitive hematopoietic stem cells or progenitor cells. Epigenetic abnormalities play an important role in the development and progression of acute leukemia. Long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) plays an important role in epigenetic regulation. Homeobox (Hox) transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) is a lncRNA which has been determined to be a negative prognostic indicator in various solid-tumor patients. However, its role in hematopoietic tumors as AML is to be assessed. This study aimed at measuring lncRNA HOTAIR expression level on bone marrow (BM) mononuclear cells in newly diagnosed AML patients and correlating its expression with their outcome and different prognostic variables. This provides new prospective for a novel marker involved in development and progression of AML which can be used as a diagnostic marker and a target of therapy. The current study included 65 subjects divided into 35 newly diagnosed AML adult patients (before initiation of chemotherapy) and 30 non-leukemic adult patients who are candidates for BM aspiration for causes other than hematological malignancies as immune thrombocytopenic purpura and hypersplenism as controls. HOTAIR expression was measured on BM mononuclear cells by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).ResultsHOTAIR expression was found to be significantly upregulated in AML patients (probability (p) value = 0.000) and it can be used as a diagnostic biomarker of AML as confirmed by a significant difference between cases and controls using receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. However, it was not significantly correlated with event free survival (EFS) or prognostic variables.ConclusionThis study showed that the expression of HOTAIR is upregulated in de novo AML patients and can be used as a diagnostic marker. However, highly expressed HOTAIR is not associated with poor prognosis.
Highlights
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disorder characterized by a rapid onset of symptoms attributable to bone marrow failure due to clonal proliferation of primitive hematopoietic stem cells or progenitor cells
As regards FAB subtypes, highest levels of Homeobox transcript antisense intergenic ribonucleic acid (HOTAIR) expression were seen in M0-1 followed by M4, M5 AML, and mixed phenotype acute leukemia (AL) than other FAB classification subtypes
This is in accordance with Fouad and Salah [15] who held a study at Cairo University aimed at studying HOTAIR Long non-coding ribonucleic acid (LncRNA) expression in Egyptian AML patients and revealed that HOTAIR is upregulated in AML
Summary
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disorder characterized by a rapid onset of symptoms attributable to bone marrow failure due to clonal proliferation of primitive hematopoietic stem cells or progenitor cells. This study aimed at measuring lncRNA HOTAIR expression level on bone marrow (BM) mononuclear cells in newly diagnosed AML patients and correlating its expression with their outcome and different prognostic variables. This provides new prospective for a novel marker involved in development and progression of AML which can be used as a diagnostic marker and a target of therapy. The epigenetic machinery is composed principally of three interconnected components: DNA methylation, histone post-translational modifications, and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) Based on their size, ncRNAs can be divided into two main groups: short-chain ncRNAs and lncRNAs [4]. LncRNAs are a type of functional RNAs with a transcript of more than 200 nucleotides in length, lacking the protein-encoding ability, but can regulate the protein-coding genes at different levels [5]
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