miRNA-181a and miRNA-128 expression levels as a predictive marker for response in treating Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Background: The genesis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) has been established to involve the workings of certain microRNAs (miRNAs), such as miR-181a and miR-128. As such, science research has been exploring their potential as biological markers for various therapeutic uses, such as disease detection, relapse likelihood prediction, and monitoring of patient treatment response. Moreover, identifying additional miRNA biomarkers can also enable scientists to develop new treatment approaches in their entirety.Methods: This study examined 100 participants, including 70 ALL patients—i.e., 40 in remission, 20 who relapsed, and 10 who were resistant—and 30 healthy controls. Researchers employed RT-qPCR to identify and quantify expressions of miR-181a and miR-128 in blood samples and statistically compared expressions in all these groups.Results: The expression analysis revealed significant differences between the study groups for both miRNA-181a and miRNA-128 (p < 0.001). The highest peak level of expression was noted in the relapse group in comparison to the response, resistant, and control participants. Furthermore, in relapse, response, and resistant groups, there was significantly elevated expression (p < 0.05), and control levels were lowest of all (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Quantitation of expression levels of miR-181a and miR-128 holds great promise in predicting treatment response in ALL patients. More importantly, miR-181a shows promise as a specific and sensitive biomarker in predicting resistance and relapse in adult ALL patients.Keywords: miRNA-181a, Biomarkers, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), miRNA-128, Treatment Response, Relapse Prediction