EXPLORING THE ONCOGENIC AND TUMOR SUPPRESSIVE FUNCTIONS OF hsa-miR-125B AND hsa-miR-574 IN ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the second common type of leukemia. In leukemia, small non-coding RNAs (miRNAs) role as either tumor suppressors or oncomiRNAs. Evidence indicates an association between the dysregulation of these miRNAs and the progression and spread. An essential regulator in carcinogenesis and progression, hsa-miR-574 is up- or down-regulated by functional pathways, underlying new mechanisms. ALL prognosis and chemoresistance have both been linked to hsa-miR-125b. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was employed to analyses the expression levels of hsa-miR-125b and hsa-miR-574 in 25 ALL patients (new and follow-up cases) and 20 healthy controls. The findings indicated that the expression levels of hsa-miR-125b and hsa-miR-574 are modified in ALL, and their expression levels were markedly changed in ALL patients. The hsa-miR-125b expression level was upregulated in new cases and downregulated in follow-up cases. Conversely, hsa-miR-574 was downregulated in ALL new cases compared to controls. However, these levels increased in follow-up cases undergoing chemo-immunotherapy. The statistics derived from the ROC curve indicate that hsa-miR-125b expression in new cases had an AUC = 0.762, in follow-up cases had an AUC = 0.562, while the hsa-miR-574 expression in new cases had an AUC = 0.542 and in follow-up cases with an AUC = 0.916 were correlated with the ALL instances. The hsa-miR-125b upregulation observed in ALL suggests its potential oncogenic role. Conversely, the downregulation of hsa-miR-574 predicts a possible tumor-suppressive function, given its reduced expression. These findings highlight the significance of hsa-miR-125b and hsa-miR-574 as key regulatory molecules in ALL progression.