miRNA: An Alternative Therapy for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Abstract

Chronic myeloid leukemia is a myeloproliferative neoplasm that results due to the expression of BCR/ABL P210 oncoprotein in hematopoietic stem cells. This oncoprotein causes constitutive expression of tyrosine kinase and disrupts normal signaling pathways of cell cycle progression and differentiation. The use of targeted therapy, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), although proved to be useful, poor drug response, drug resistance, adverse side effects, high cost has posed a severe threat to CML patients. This has shifted the attention of the scientific community to search for a more viable alternative that can tackle not only TKI related problems but also modulate the leukemogenic signaling pathways by silencing Bcr/Abl expression at the transcript level. MicroRNAs provide a beautiful avenue of therapeutic research in haematological malignancies including CML. They are promising prognostic as well diagnostic molecules, and with rapid advancement in miRNA based research and underlying signaling network in CML, the use of miRNA as prognostic, diagnostic biomarker or as a therapeutic agent alone, or in combination with TKIs is sure to see the light of the day. This paper is an endeavour to synthesize our present knowledge about CML, the signaling pathways involved in the disease and importance of microRNA in CML emphasizing on why microRNA is a better alternative than the currently available TKIs.