Association of Microrna-153-3p Expression in Response to Treatment with Imatinib in Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Background: It is thought that the susceptibility of chronic myeloid leukemic (CML) cells to imatinib (IM) is increased by high miR-153-3p expression.
Aim: To establish the association of miR-153-3p expression with treatment response to IM in CML patients.
Methods: Sixty CML patients were included and divided into two groups consistent with their response to treatment whether sensitive or resistant to IM. Ten healthy normal participants were enrolled as control group. RNA was extracted from serum to work out miR-153-3p expression utilizing real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The primers were supplied by Macrogen Inc.
Results:  27 patients were sensitive to imatinib and 33 were resistant to imatinib. The ratio of   male to female was 1.14:1. The bulk (58%) of patients were within the age range of 41-60 years. Weight and gender did not significantly differ between the two patient groups. The mean patients’ CT of miR-153-3p was significantly above the control group and the sensitive group. The mean DCT value in resistant group was significantly above that of the sensitive group while insignificantly above that of the control group. The mean DDCT in resistant group was significantly higher than that of the sensitive group. The miR-153-3p expression showed significantly lower fold change than the sensitive group.
Conclusion: There is miR-153-3p expression downregulation in resistant CML patients indicating unresponsiveness to treatment with imatinib.