Researchers at the ibs.GRANADA identify new biomarkers that may be of clinical use in the fight against childhood lymphoblastic leukemia
Researchers from the Childhood Leukemia Research Classroom “Heroes against Leukemia” lead a study that identifies new biomarkers that may be of clinical utility in the fight against childhood lymphoblastic leukemia.
Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer, accounting for 30% of pediatric cancers, with 300 new cases in Spain each year. Most pediatric leukemias (80%) belong to the group of acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL), which are the ones studied in this work.
In this publication, which has been developed mainly by the AE22-Cancer Genetics, Biomarkers and Therapies group
IBS GRANADA experimental studies at the Pfizer Center-University of Granada-Junta de Andalucía de Genomics and Oncological Research (GENYO), have studied samples of child patients between 1 and 12 years old treated at the Regional Hospital of Ma? laga and Hospital Sant Joan de De? u in Barcelona.
“In this study we have focused our attention on long non-coding RNAs, which are a type of gene that belongs to the most unknown part of our genome. They are very difficult genes to study, but at the same time they could be the key to understanding the complex processes that occur in diseases such as cancer”, says Marta Cuadros, one of the main authors of the article.
In this study, the researchers studied the differences in the expression levels of 2829 long non-coding RNAs between childhood ALL samples and healthy samples. To help predict the function of the RNAs, they associated each of them with a protein-coding gene that might be regulated by noncoding RNA. "In this comparison, the pair of genes made up of the connective tissue growth factor gene (CCN2) and a long non-coding RNA close to it called AL133346.1 stood out as especially abundant in tumor samples," says Álvaro Andrades, one of the main authors of the study.
The findings made show the diagnostic specificity of the product of the couple composed of the connective tissue growth factor and AL133346.1 for acute lymphatic leukemias compared to healthy samples and other different types of leukemia, which gives it a usefulness as disease biomarker.
Furthermore, when the connective tissue growth factor product was studied in a larger group of samples, belonging to the international consortium Therapeutically Applicable Research To Generate Effective Treatments, It was discovered that patients who presented higher amounts of the product of this gene had a greater survival, which indicates its usefulness as a prognostic biomarker of this type of childhood leukemias.
The research team, coordinated by the University of Granada, has professors and researchers from the Biochemistry I and III departments of the Faculties of Sciences and Medicine of the University of Granada, researchers from the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada and researchers from the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital in Granada, the Ma? laga Regional Hospital and the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital Research Institute in Barcelona.
Internationally Awarded Communication.
“We presented a communication prior to this publication in the international congress Computational Genomics and Systems Biology Symposium organized by the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) and University College Dublin (UCD) last December and the communication was awarded, which encouraged us to send our results so that an international journal could evaluate their publication”, says Daniel Jesús García student doctoral student with a scholarship from the Fundación Benéfica Anticáncer San Francisco Javier y Santa Cándida and one of the main authors of the article.
First scientific investigation
This study would not have been possible without the support of the Association Heroes to the Marrow, in synergy with the University of Granada, they promoted the creation of the Research Classroom against Childhood Leukemia, Heroes Against Leukemia. Private donations for research, due to insufficient government support for research, are now even more important”, says Pedro Pablo Medina Vico, director of the Childhood Leukemia Research Classroom, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Granada, and principal investigator of the group AE22-Cancer Genetics, Biomarkers and Experimental Therapies of the Biosanitary Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA).
"We hope from the Research Classroom to continue contributing to the study of childhood leukemia and the importance of bone marrow donation to fight this disease," concludes Professor Medina, director of this study.
Today, Monday, February 15, the International Day of Childhood Cancer is commemorated, with the aim of raising awareness in society about this disease and about the need for all children in the world with cancer to have access to proper diagnosis and treatment.
Bibliographic reference:
LncRNA-mRNA Co-Expression Analysis Identifies AL133346.1 / CCN2 as Biomarkers in Pediatric B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
MartaCuadros, DanielJ.García,
cancers:https://doi.org/10.
The article is available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-