Long noncoding RNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1)‎ : a molecular predictor of poor survival in glioblastoma multiforme in Egyptian patients

Abstract EN

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a recently discovered class of transcribed RNA molecules with a length of more than 200 nucleotides.

Recent studies have shown that lncRNA metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) could play an important role in carcinogenesis and cancer progression in several types of malignancies.

Objective: As little is known about the role and clinical significance of lncRNA MALAT1 in glioblastoma multiform (GBM) patients in Egyptian population, this study aimed to investigate the expressions of lncRNA-MALAT1 in human GBM samples and to correlate these expressions with the available clinicopathological features including patient survival data.

Subjects and methods: The relative expression of MALAT1 was determined in 37 human glioblastoma formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue samples and 10 FFPE non-neoplastic brain tissues using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) technology.

Results: The current results revealed that lncRNA MALAT1 expression was down-regulated in all tumor specimens compared to normal tissues.

A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed high diagnostic performance; area under curve (AUC) =0.925 ± 0.038 (P <0.001), 95% CI= 0.850–1.00, with 94.6% sensitivity, and 72.7% specificity.

Lower MALAT1 expression was associated with poor prognosis; higher frequency of recurrence (P < 0.044), lower overall survival (P <0.005), and shorter disease-free survival (P < 0.004).