Relationship between Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Gene and Some microRNAs Expression Levels in Patients with Bladder Cancer

Background: Bladder cancer (BC) is the fourth most prevalent cancer among the top ten malignancies, and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) played a role in its pathogenesis. Objective: To investigate the link between hTERT expression levels and miRNA-29c, miRNA-125, miRNA-141, miRNA-145, and miRNA-205 expression levels in BC patients. Methods: A total of 149 tissue biopsies and/or urine samples were collected from patients with urinary tract complications, including BC patients, as well as patients who served as negative controls for BC (negative cystoscopy, prostate cancer patients), and healthy people. To measure the hTERT gene expression level, total RNA was extracted and reverse-transcribed to cDNA. Then, quantitative real-time PCR was performed using specific primer sets. Results: hTERT expression levels in BC patients were significantly higher; however, there was no statistically significant difference between the grade of non-muscle invasive BC or the stages of muscle invasion in urine or tissue biopsy samples. The expression of hTERT and miRNAs (miRNA-29c, miRNA-125, miRNA-141, miRNA-145, and miRNA-205) genes in urine and tissue biopsies was significantly correlated. BC patients had upregulated hTERT expression levels in tissue biopsies and urine samples but lower expression levels of miR-141 and miR-205 compared to negative cystoscopy patients. Conclusions: The combination of miRNA and hTERT expression levels may serve as a good prognostic marker for predicting BC in both urine and tissue.