Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common aggressive leukemia in adults with high mortality rates. Despite therapeutic advances, maintaining complete remission and improving survival rates remain challenging. Disease-related genetic and epigenetic alterations are likely involved and need in-depth exploration. MicroRNAs have been widely implicated in cancer diagnosis, staging, prognosis, and treatment response. This study explored miR-107 and miR-451a as candidate prognostic markers in AML. Newly diagnosed AML patients (n = 25) constituted group I, and healthy controls (n = 25) constituted group II. MiR-107 and miR-451a levels were measured by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Upregulation of miR-107 and downregulation of miR-451a were observed in patients compared with controls. Higher miR-107 and lower miR-451a levels were significantly associated with adverse cytogenetic and molecular subtypes and identified adverse ELN risk patients at cutoff levels of > 0.68 and 1.4) or low miR-451-a (< 0.48) had poorer survival outcomes. In conclusion, miR-107 was elevated and miR-451a was reduced in AML patients. These abnormal expression patterns were associated with adverse cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities. They were also linked to adverse ELN risk, and poorer survival. This underscores their promising role as novel prognostic markers and possible therapeutic targets.
Younis et al. (Mon,) studied this question.