Association of miR-34a Expression with Quality of Life of Glioblastoma Patients: A Prospective Study

Abstract

MiR-34a acts as tumor-suppressor by targeting many oncogenes related to proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion of gliomas. We studied the relationships between health-related quality of life (HRQOL), depression, and miR-34a expression status in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM). A comprehensive HRQOL assessment was completed by 38 patients with glioblastoma prior to surgical resection and included the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaire for cancer patients (QLQ-C30) and the Brain Cancer-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-BN20), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Karnofsky performance index (KPS), and The Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). The miR-34a expression in glioblastoma tissue was measured using quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Our findings show that lower miR-34a expression is significantly associated with higher tumor volume, worse physical functioning, lower KPS, and greater depressive symptom severity of GBM patients. Moreover, analysis reveals that miR-34a effects might be gender specific, as stronger relationships between miR-34a and patient functioning measures were observed in males when compared to females. Despite the fact that, due to small sample size, our results should be considered as preliminary, our study suggests that miR-34a is associated with tumor burden and can be important for health-related quality of life, functional status, and mood symptoms of glioblastoma patients.

Unique Interplay between Molecular miR-181b/d Biomarkers and Health Related Quality of Life Score in the Predictive Glioma Models

“…Similar studies were carried out by S. Kay et al, who revealed changes of matrix metalloproteinase levels in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients with different HRQOL scores [ 34 ], and by J. Hu et al, whose work linked serum miR-206 levels to the quality of life of Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients [ 35 ]. Besides our previous work on miR-34a [ 36 ], brain cancer patients’ quality of life and its association with circulating biomarkers have only been investigated by A. Bunevicius et al, whose study suggests the importance of free triiodothyronine and thyroid stimulating hormone levels [ 37 ]. All of this research indicates the possibility of patients’ quality of life prediction in various diseases and invites us to look at biomarkers from a patients’ psychological and functional point of view.…”

Associations of miR-181a with Health-Related Quality of Life, Cognitive Functioning, and Clinical Data of Patients with Different Grade Glioma Tumors

“…Thus, it might be that relationships were lost due to the heterogeneity of the sample regarding tumor locations and other clinical characteristics. However, previous findings by our team group showed that miR-34a or miR-181b / d expression levels were related to patients’ functioning and tumor-related symptoms [ 41 , 42 ]. Therefore, we believe that current findings support the idea that levels of miR-181a expression might be valuable not only in predicting longer survival but also in better general functioning.…”

MicroRNA and mRNA Expression Changes in Glioblastoma Cells Cultivated under Conditions of Neurosphere Formation

“…MiR-34a (hsa-mir-34a-5p) targets many oncogenes associated with proliferation, apoptosis, and glioma invasion and so have been characterized as a tumor suppressor. Moreover, it is proposed as a predictive miRNA, lower level of which associated with worse physical functioning, higher tumor volume, greater depressive symptom severity of GBM patients and the lower Karnofsky performance index [ 77 ]. Several studies have shown the suppressive role of miR-381 (hsa-miR-381-3p) in cell metastasis and EMT in glioblastoma due to the suppression of LEF1 expression.…”