In the era of personalized medicine treatment of acromegaly requires the individual selection of optimal treatment based on the measured parameters. Following the standard algorithm for the management of patients with acromegaly with the choice of neurosurgical treatment as the main and somatostatin analogues as the first line of drug therapy with ineffective surgery prevents the achievement of remission in patients resistant to these types of therapy. The introduction of predictive biomarkers in clinical practice will allow to achieve remission of the disease faster and reduce the financial costs of ineffective treatments. We collected information of possible predictive biomarkers in acromegaly from literature. This review presents data from studies of potential predictive biomarkers in different treatments of acromegaly. According to the analysis of publications, the greatest number of results is devoted to the prediction resistance to somatostatin analogues. Reliable biomarkers predicting the inefficiency of somatostatin analogues include low immunoexpression of somatostatin receptors type 2 and AIP protein, rarely granular type of pituitary adenoma and hyperintensive signal on T2-weighted images in magnetic resonance imaging of the pituitary gland. At the same time, the search for predictors of the effectiveness of pegvisomant is focused on the study of the receptor of growth hormone and opens up new opportunities for pharmacogenomic research. Thus, it is necessary to expand the search of predictive biomarkers for different methods of acromegalys treatment. It is especially important to identify biomarkers that do not require mandatory removal of the tumor. Of great interest is the study of epigenetic biomarkers, in particular miRNAs, which carry out post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. The study of circulating blood microRNAs in acromegaly opens up prospects for the introduction of a personalized approach in the treatment of this disease.

MicroRNA presents small (19–25 nucleotides long) non-coding RNA molecules which regulate gene expression on post-transcriptional level. Numerous studies revealed microRNA’s important role in physiological processes. Moreover, its aberrant expression has been described in many pathological conditions including pituitary tumors. Pituitary adenomas are benign intracranial tumors with various clinical presentations depending on the type of hormone secretion. Prediction of the pituitary adenoma aggressive level and treatment response is challenging due to the lack of reliable clinical predictors or non-invasive biomarkers. MicroRNAs in body fluids could potentially be a minimally invasive biomarker for tumor diagnosis and a predictor of treatment response and prognosis. Some studies reveal that microRNA is specific for a different pituitary adenoma subtypes. In the article, we review existing evidence on microRNA expression in GH-secreting tumors and its possible involvement in pathogenesis of somatotroph tumors.

Background. Absence of detectable MEN1 mutations in a patient with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) phenotype may disprove the hereditary predisposition and the necessity of a lifelong regular screening for detecting the remaining components of the syndrome, and the examination of the first-degree relatives. Nevertheless, there may be other genes involved in the co-occurrence of several MEN1-associated tumors. Aim — to determine the role of genes, associated with the development of familial pituitary adenomas (PA), and genes, presumably involved in pathogenesis of sporadic PA, in the development of MEN1 phenocopies with PA as one of components.Material and methods. 23 patients with MEN1 phenocopy were included in the study. The patients underwent next-generation sequencing (NGS) (Ion TorrentTM PGMTM, Thermo Fisher Scientific — Life Technologies, USA) using a panel of candidate genes (MEN1, CDKN1B, PRKAR1A, AIP, SDHA, SDHB, SDHC, SDHD, GNAS, PRKCA, CDKN2A, CDKN2C, POU1F1, PTTG2).Results. In 1 (4%) female patient with acromegaly and primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) a germline heterozygous change in exon 6 of AIP gene c.911G>A (p.R304Q) was revealed. In four female patients with acromegaly and PHPT we revealed polymorphisms whose pathological significance is not defined: heterozygous change in exon 1 of PTTG2 gene c.134G>A (p.R45H), heterozygous change in intron 1 of PRKAR1A gene (c.–10G>C), heterozygous change in exon 5 of SDHB gene c.487T>C (p.S163P), heterozygous change in 3’-UTR of CDKN1B gene g.3897G>T (c*8G>T).Conclusions. The results of our study show that mutations in the majority of the examined genes associated with the development of hereditary and sporadic PA, do not cause the development of MEN1 phenocopies. The necessity to study AIP gene in all patients with MEN1 phenocopies needs further research. It is recommended to search for new genes, mutations in which could be the cause of the development of MEN1 phenocopies.