Diagnostic and prognostic significance of miRNA-511 and miRNA-16 expressions in adult patients with B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Background Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a neoplastic disease that results from multistep somatic mutations in a single lymphoid progenitor cell. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are critical regulators of gene expression, tumor suppression, and oncogenesis. Aim To evaluate miRNA-511 and miRNA-16 expression in Egyptian adult patients with B-ALL. Patients and methods A total of 37 newly diagnosed adult patients with B-ALL admitted to Alexandria Main University Hospital in 2019 were included. Complete blood count, bone marrow aspiration, immunophenotyping, BCR-ABL testing, karyotyping, miRNA extraction using miRNeasy Mini followed by cDNA synthesis AQ6 (RQ-PCR combines cDNA synthesis from RNA templates using miScript II RT kit), and finally real-time PCR for miRNA-511 and miRNA-16 expression were among the investigations that were conducted. Results Mean age of patients with ALL was 30.65 ± 10.39 years, with male to female ratio of 1.4 : 1. Cytogenetic findings showed that only three patients had favorable risk, and the rest were either intermediate risk (19) or high risk (15). Among the high-risk group, there were 11 patients with Philadelphia chromosome (BCR-ABL 190) positive. Regarding the expression of miRNAs, most patients showed overexpression of both miRNA-16 and miRNA-511. MiRNA-511 was overexpressed in 81.1% (30) patients; among these patients, 43.3% (13) had adverse cytogenetic findings. MiRNA-16 was overexpressed in 70.3% (26) of patients, and half of them (13) had adverse cytogenetic findings. receiver operating characteristic curves showed diagnostic significance in B-ALL for miRNA-16, with sensitivity of 75.7% and specificity of 80%, and for miRNA-511, sensitivity was 89.2% and specificity was 90% (P<0.05). Conclusion MiRNA-16 and miRNA-511 were significantly overexpressed in adult patients with B-ALL. They have a role in diagnosis but a weak role in patient prognosis.