{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T10:18:57Z","timestamp":1785406737133,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,27]],"date-time":"2026-04-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777248000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Deputyship for Research and Innovation, Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia","award":["IFPRC-217-130-2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IFPRC-217-130-2020"]}]},{"award":["IFPRC-217-130-2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IFPRC-217-130-2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00q919b81","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a clinically diverse cancer in which microRNA (miRNA)-mediated post-transcriptional regulation contributes to leukemogenesis and subtype heterogeneity. In this study, miRNA expression profiling by microarray was performed on ALL cases (B-ALL and T-ALL) and healthy controls. Data were normalized and analyzed for differential expression using false discovery rate (FDR)-adjusted p-values. Differentially expressed miRNAs were further examined using unsupervised visualization to assess overall disease-related expression patterns. To explore their biological significance, experimentally validated miRNA\u2013target interactions were obtained using multiMiR, limited to validated databases (miRTarBase, TarBase, and miRecords) and summarized via target-burden ranking, miRNA\u2013target network analysis, and Circos\u2013style interaction mapping. A unique miRNA expression signature was identified in ALL. Upregulated miRNAs included miR-106a-5p, miR-106b-5p, miR-17-5p, miR-20a-5p, miR-20b-5p, miR-181b-5p, and miR-128-3p, while miR-127-3p, miR-139-5p, miR-433-3p, and miR-584-5p were downregulated. Validated targets concentrated on key leukemia-related genes like PTEN, BCL2L11, CDKN1A, CCND1, RB1, E2F1, and TGFBR2. KEGG pathway analysis highlighted pathways associated with leukemic cell survival and growth, including MAPK, cell cycle, autophagy, Hippo, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, and mTOR signaling pathways. These findings reveal a concise ALL-associated miRNA panel predominantly comprising the miR-17\/20\/106 family and provide a prioritized set of candidate regulatory networks for subtype-specific validation and functional follow-up studies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms27093868","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,28]],"date-time":"2026-04-28T11:33:37Z","timestamp":1777376017000},"page":"3868","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Differential Expression and Target Gene Analysis of PBMC-Derived microRNAs as Prognostic Biomarkers in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5251-559X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fatemah S.","family":"Basingab","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21585, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Immunology Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21859, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3075-5514","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hadil","family":"Alahdal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Princess Nourah University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Deemah","family":"Alwadaani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Genomics Research Department, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC), Riyadh 11481, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4245-2956","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ghaida","family":"Almuneef","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Artificial Intelligence and Data Management Department, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 11481, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2009-3817","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ahmed S.","family":"Barefah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hematology Department, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Hematology Research Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21585, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9976-4868","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ali H.","family":"Algiraigri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hematology Department, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Hematology Research Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21585, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6293-7497","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rawan","family":"Hammad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hematology Department, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Hematology Research Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21585, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohamed","family":"Elnakeeb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hematology Department, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Hematology Research Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21585, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7803-2078","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jehan S.","family":"Alrahimi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21585, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Immunology Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21859, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0909-6558","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kawther A.","family":"Zaher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunology Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21859, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9599-050X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alia M.","family":"Aldahlawi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21585, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Immunology Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21859, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e577","DOI":"10.1038\/bcj.2017.53","article-title":"Acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A comprehensive review and 2017 update","volume":"7","author":"Terwilliger","year":"2017","journal-title":"Blood Cancer J."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1720","DOI":"10.1038\/s41375-022-01620-2","article-title":"The 5th edition of the World 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