The Expression of miR-21 and miR-29c in Blood Plasma of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patient Post-Chemoradiotherapy Savitri Eka1, Maharis Indira1, Kadir Abdul1, Djamin Riskiana1, Mubarikaand Sofia2, Wardana Tirta3 1Department of ENT Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Hasanuddin University, Makassar 2Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta 3Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Online published on 23 December, 2019. Abstract Background and Objective Radiotherapyandchemoterapy aremain therapy for tumor. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant tumor which come from nasopharyngeal epithelial cells (a squamous cell carcinoma). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs, acting as post-transcription regulatiors in the target gene. MiRNAs have an important role in the pathogenesis of NPC, they may act as tumor suppressor genes or as oncogenes and their regulation is related to the prognosis of the disease and the outcome of therapy in the target gene. This study aims to determine the effects of chemoradiotherapy on miR-21 and miR-29c in blood plasma of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient. Materials and Method Prospective cohort was used as a research design. The study was conducted in Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital Makassar in February-November 2017. Plasma of blood collected after chemoradiotherapy will be isolated, then synthesized into c-DNA and calculated the quantitative amount with qRT-PCR. Result There were 16 samples consisting of 9 NPC plasma post chemoradiotherapy and 7 plasma NPC post radiotherapy. From the plasma we detected miR-21 and miR-29c. The expression of miR-21 in post chemoradiotherapy decreased compared to pre-therapy, in contrast, the expression of miR-29c in postchemoradiotherapy increased compared with pre-therapy. The expressionsof miR-21 and miR-29c in post radiotherapy decreased compared to pre-therapy. The expression of miR-21 in post chemoradiotherapy decreased compared to post radiotherapy, in contrast, the expression of miR-29c in post chemoradiotherapy increased compared with post radiotherapy. Conclusion We found essential differentiation between mRNA-29c expression before and after radiotherapy at nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient, so it can consider as predictive factor for therapy responses. Top Keywords Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, miRNA, miR-21, miR-29c, chemoradiotherapy, radiotherapy, qRT-PCR. Top |