HOTAIR Long Noncoding RNA is not a Biomarker for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in Iranian Patients

Accumulating evidence indicates that lncRNAs may have potential as new biomarkers to predict prognosis of different human cancers. HOTAIR lncRNA, transcribed from the human HOX locus, has been suggested to regulate gene expression of important target genes and up-regulation has been noted in malignancies. The role of HOX transcript antisense RNA in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was investigated in the present case control study. HOTAIR expression was evaluated in blood samples of twenty five de novo AML patients and fifty healthy controls using real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR). Our results demonstrated no significant differences in HOTAIR lncRNA expression level between AML patients and healthy individuals. The obtained data indicate that HOTAIR is not an informative and reliable biomarker for AML diagnosis, although our results should be confirmed in further studies.