MicroRNAs: Regulatory Biomarkers in Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Graft Versus Host Disease

MicroRNAs are a group of small non-coding RNAs with about 19 - 22 nucleotides and have a crucial role in different biologic processes such as cell proliferation, differentiation, and cell death at the post-transcriptional level. Disruption in these molecules can play an important role in tumorigenesis, and they can act as oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematologic malignancy with abnormal proliferation and differentiation of immature myeloid cells. MicroRNAs can be considered as biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment in AML patients. One of the treatments in these patients is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), and acute graft versus host disease (aGVHD) is the most common complication of HSCT in these patients. Patients with aGVHD appear with different clinical symptoms. Some microRNAs can predict the risk of aGVHD in these patients.

The resources of this study are from different sites and journals such as ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed, scopus.com, Blood Journal, British Journal of Haematology, etc. Results: The expression of various microRNAs is different in AML patients. Also, these differences can be observed in patients with aGVHD.

Identification of microRNAs can be useful in the diagnosis and prognosis of AML and aGVHD in these patients. In this review, we discuss the role of microRNAs in the pathogenesis of AML and aGVHD in patients who have undergone HSCT.