Reduced Expression Levels of the MST1 gene in the Peripheral Blood of Patients with Prostate Cancer

Background: Prostate cancer (PC) is the second most common malignancy among men, accounting for 12.5% of all cancers. The development of molecular studies (such as RNA expression analysis) aids the characterization of this cancer, the development of new targets for therapy, and the introduction of novel prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers. Recent studies have confirmed Mammalian Sterile 20-Like kinase (MST1) as a tumor suppressor gene, which has been introduced as a biomarker for some specific cancers. In this study, we focus on MST1 expression levels in the WBC of PC patients, due to the inheritance pattern of PC. Methods: This case-control study was conducted in two groups (20 patients with PC and 20 healthy individuals). After RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, quantitative Real-Time PCR was done in order to determine the MST1 expression level. GAPDH was selected as an internal control gene. Statistical analysis was performed using “Rotor-Gene Q series software 2.3.1” and “Rest 2.0.13 software”. Results: This study, carried out on 20 PC patients aged 50-70 and 20 healthy individuals shows that MST1 expression level in the WBC samples of PC patients is approximately 62% lower compared to normal individuals (P<0.01). Conclusion: Introducing the reduced expression level of MST1 as a prostate cancer biomarker requires complementary research. However, in this study, biomarker validation and potential of MST1 has been approved.