A microRNA-mRNA regulatory network explains the landscape of the de novo cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukaemia

The association between dysregulated microRNAs (miRNAs) and cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukaemia (CN-AML) is well reported. However, our understanding on the regulatory role of miRNAs in CN-AML pathway is still poor. The current study integrated both miRNA and mRNA profiles to explore novel miRNA-mRNA interactions that affect the regulatory patterns in de novo CN-AML. Twenty-four (24) newly diagnosed CN-AML patients were matched on age, gender and ethnicity to the controls with a 1:1 ratio. Blood samples collected from patients were used to extract total RNA. The total RNA is used to quantify miRNA and mRNA profiles using the multiplexed nCounter platform. Significant miRNA and mRNA expressions were identified using the following criteria; P-value 1.5 or FC A correlation matrix was set up to correlate miRNA and mRNA data. We were only interested in negative correlation as miRNA plays inhibitory role towards mRNA. Correlation deemed meaningful at r