MicroRNA levels in the peripheral blood of myeloma, smoldering myeloma, and MGUS

Wednesday, September 24, 2014 — Poster Session IV
10:00 a.m. –12:00 p.m.	FAES Academic Center	CC	CANCER-4

* FARE Award Winner

Authors

• E.A. Barber
• W. Wang
• M. Corrigan-Cummins
• L. Saleh
• R. Kurlander
• O. Landgren
• K.R. Calvo

Abstract

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell neoplasm preceded by the precursor diseases of smoldering myeloma (SMM) and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). MicroRNAs (miRs) are small, noncoding RNAs that function as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression and are stable in the peripheral blood (PB). In this study, we assayed levels of 26 miRs previously suggested to play a role in myelomagenesis, in the PB of 13 MM, 17 SMM, 17 MGUS, and 12 healthy controls, by quantitative RT-PCR. We found seven miRs that were significantly decreased in the PB serum of MM compared to healthy controls (let-7a, let-7b, let-7i, miR-15b, miR-16, miR-20a, and miR-21). These findings were validated in a separate cohort of 17 MM and 20 controls. Analysis of SMM and MGUS samples revealed three of the significant miRs in MM showed decreased expression in MGUS (let-7i, miR-15a, and miR-16), suggesting that altered expression of these miRs occurs early in myelomagenesis. The remaining miRs (let-7a, miR-15b, miR-20a, and miR-21) were not differentially expressed in MGUS or SMM and were differentially expressed only in MM suggesting that altered expression of these miRs is a later event possibly related to disease progression.

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