overexpression of long non-coding rna anril in b- acute lymphoblastic leukemia

background: dysregulation of lncrna antisense non-coding rna in the ink4 locus (anril) expression is implicated in pathogenesis and disease progression of a variety of cancer types. however, the expression level of anril in pediatric patients with b-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (bcp-all) has not been elucidated, yet. the present study is an attempt to evaluate the expression level of anril at different clinical stages in pediatric patients with bcp-all. materials and methods: this case-control study was conducted in tehran, iran on peripheral blood samples obtained at diagnosis, complete remission, and relapse phases from a total of 50 pediatric bcp-all patients who were admitted to mahak hospital and rehabilitation complex, and rasul akram hospital. the anril expression analysis was performed by the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qrt-pcr) method. to test the statistical significance, a nonparametric mann-whitney u test was used. results: the mean fold-changes of anril gene expression in newly diagnosed patients were [31.51 (18.28 to 44.75)] compared to the control group [1.06 (0.73 to 1.38)] indicating significant overexpression (p 0.001). anril fold-changes significantly declined following achievement of complete remission [1.24 (0.80 to 1.69)] compared to the newly diagnosed patients (p 0.001) and increased as the patients experienced relapse [285.4 (269.70 to 301) (p 0.001)]. conclusions: lncrna anril may contribute to bcp- all pathogenesis and disease progression; casting new light on the application of anril as a potential biomarker or therapeutic target in bcp-all.