The genes controlling NHEJ in neuroblastoma

Abstract: This study has been made in order to investigate the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway and the genes involved in this system, particularly their roles in neuroblastoma. The study aims to identify the expression levels of genes included in the pathway in neuroblastoma samples of varying clinical characteristics, classifications and behaviors to see how these differs. This opens the discussion and possibility to further research if the NHEJ pathway candidates for targeting therapeutically in order to enhance the outcomes of patients treated for the disease. The results of this study shows associations between XRCC6, XRCC5, PRKDC, XLF and XRCC4, which is involved in the NHEJ pathway, and poor outcomes, unfavorable clinical characteristics and behaviors of tumors in which these are highly expressed. XRCC5, XRCC6, and XRCC4 are suggested to be suitable biomarkers used to predict the treatment outcomes of neuroblastoma patients in order to investigate which ones that would benefit the most from which therapy. XLF and XRCC4 are also suggested to be targeted as an additional therapy method to the conventional ones in order to enhance the therapeutic effect of these, these would be targeted for knockdown to inhibit the NHEJ pathway causing an increased radio sensitivity. DCLRE1C has been associated to positive clinical characteristics and outcomes, it is suggested that these could be enhanced by upregulation of this gene using miR-888-5p inhibition. However, additional studies must be done in order to investigate the roles of these genes in neuroblastoma and the possibilities to target these for therapy further.