High expression of miR-25 predicts favorable chemotherapy outcome in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Mingshan Niu†,
Yuan Feng†,
Ninghan Zhang†,
Tingting Shao,
Huihui Zhang,
Rong Wang,
Yao Yao,
Ruosi Yao,
Qingyun Wu,
Jiang Cao,
Xuejiao Liu,
Yubo LiuEmail author and
Kailin XuEmail author

†Contributed equally

Cancer Cell International201919:122

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-019-0843-9

Received: 17 March 2019
Accepted: 29 April 2019
Published: 7 May 2019

Abstract

Background

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) pertains to a hematologic malignancy with heterogeneous therapeutic responses. Improvements in risk stratification in AML patients are warranted. MicroRNAs have been associated with the pathogenesis of AML.

Methods

To examine the prognostic value of miR-25, 162 cases with de novo AML were classified into two groups according to different treatment regimens.

Results

In the chemotherapy group, cases with upregulated miR-25 expression showed relatively longer overall survival (OS; P = 0.0086) and event-free survival (EFS; P = 0.019). Multivariable analyses revealed that miR-25 upregulation is an independent predictor for extended OS (HR = 0.556, P = 0.015) and EFS (HR = 0.598, P = 0.03). In addition, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) circumvented the poor prognosis that was related to miR-25 downregulation with chemotherapy. The expression level pattern of miR-25 coincided with AML differentiation and proliferation, which included HOXA and HOXB cluster members, as well as the HOX cofactor MEIS1. The MYH9 gene was identified as a direct target of miR-25.

Conclusions

The miR-25 levels are correlated with prognosis in AML independently of other powerful molecular markers. The expression of miR-25 may contribute to the selection of the optimal treatment regimen between chemotherapy and allo-HCST for AML patients.