• Relationship between miRNA polymorphism and brain tumours
  • Zeinab Sadat Jalali,1,* maryam Soleimani,2 Zahra Nourjoo,3 Mohammadmahdi Mehrabi,4 Ali Nazeri,5 Sara Ameli,6
    1. student research committiee, Jahrom university of Medical science, Jahrom, Iran
    2. Student Research Committee, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran.
    3. faculty of medicine, Tehran university of medical sciences, Tehran, Iran
    4. Student Research Committee, faculty of medicine, Shahed university, Tehran, Iran.
    5. Student Research Committee, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
    6. Student Research Committee, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran.


  • Introduction: Brain tumor refers to a collection of brain neoplasm that either originates from the central nervous system or presents as a metastasis from other neoplasms. Primary malignant tumors of the nervous system constitute 2.3% of all human malignant tumors and cause the death of more than thousands of people in the world every year. Therefore, efficient methods for rapid diagnosis of brain tumors are vital. MicroRNA (miRNA) are non-protein-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level, and they mostly include 19–24 nucleotides. These molecules are an important regulator of gene expression, and they are considered to have an important role in pathological processes like cancer. Therefore, our aim in this study is to investigate the relationship between different miRNA polymorphisms and brain tumors.
  • Methods: For this research, existing articles in PubMed, Web of Science, Sid, and Google Scholar databases that have been published till 2022 are systematically selected, and 10 articles are included in this study. This research is done in English considering the following keywords: Brain Neoplasms, microRNA, and polymorphism.
  • Results: Studies show that there is a significant relationship between some miRNA and tumor grade. Deregulation of miRNA in the cerebrospinal nervous system (CSF) is considered to be a factor in brain tumors. Some miRNAs can be anti-apoptotic agents, and some of them can act as silencers of anti-apoptotic agents. MiR-21 roles as an oncogenic agent in glioblastoma multiform (GBM) by blocking genes that induce apoptosis. The GG genotype of miR-146a shows a higher risk of developing brain tumors in comparison with the GC genotype. CC genotype of the pir-miR-34b/c rs4938723 shows a lower risk of glioma compared to the TT genotype of this miRNA. On the other side, the CC genotype of the TP53 Arg72-Pror has proved to be at a higher risk of glioma than the GG genotype. On the other hand, it’s been proven that some miRNAs such as miR-129 have been increased and other miRNAs such as miR-142-5p and miR25 have significantly decreased in brain tumor samples. Some miRNAs such as miR-302-367, miR-Cdh4, miR-378a-3p, miR-342, miR-153, miR-940, miR-7-5P, miR-101, and miR-338 can inhibit growth of glioblastoma. Some miRNAs such as miR-183, miR-135b, miR-221, miR-222, miR- 4443, miR-422a, miR-494-3P, miR-502-5P, miR-520f-3p, miR-549, and miR-223 are shown to be a factor of glioblastoma.
  • Conclusion: In general, there is a significant relationship between some miRNAs and the development of brain tumors. Changing RNA-based biomarkers can help to diagnose different types of brain tumors, but more studies are needed in this field.
  • Keywords: Brain Neoplasms, MicroRNAs, Polymorphism