Evaluating the expression of LKB1, SHMT1, and GLDC genes in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia patients

Background: Epigenetic changes in cancer cells have an immense effect on tumorigenesis. As a tumor suppressor and an epigenetic regulator, liver kinase B1 (LKB1) reduces gene methylation by downregulating metabolic pathways such as the serine-glycine pathway. This study seeks to examine the gene expression levels of serine hydroxymethyltransferase 1 (SHMT1) and glycine decarboxylase (GLDC), as two serine-glycine pathway regulatory genes, along with LKB1 in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients. Materials and Methods: In this analytical study, qRT-PCR was used to evaluate the gene expression levels of LKB1, SHMT1, and GLDC in 50 ALL patients with an average age of 11.64 ± 10.6 years. The patients were compared to 10 healthy controls. Subsequently, the correlation between the gene expression levels and the patients’ demographic data was investigated. Results: No significant difference was found between the ALL patients and the control individuals in terms of LKB1 and GLDC gene expressions, but SHMT1 was significantly overexpressed in the ALL patients (p = 0.003). Moreover, there was a significant association between GLDC and the other SHMT1 (p = 0.020) and LKB1 (p = 0.047). No significant connection was also found between the age (pL = 0.304, pS = 0.305, pG = 0.899), gender (pL = 0.475, pS = 0.299, pG = 0.388), and blast percentage (pL = 0.335, pS = 0.148, pG = 0.459) of the patients and the genes. Conclusion: The increased expression of SHMT1 suggests the oncogenic role of this gene. Thus, the present study offers a novel diagnostic marker in ALL patients.