Expression of the prothymosin α mRNA correlated with that of N-myc in neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma is the most common malignant solid cancers in early childhood. Overexpression of the proto-oncogene, N-myc, has been reported to be correlated with more malignant course of the disease. Prothymosin α, a cellular proliferation-associated gene, is reported to be a target of myc and elevated in several malignant cells and tissues. Expression of prothymosin α and N-myc messenger RNAs were evaluated by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay in 18 tumor samples from neuroblastoma using LightCycler. The data was analyzed in reference to clinicopathological factors. There was a tendency that higher prothymosin α transcripts levels in the tumor samples from younger patients (<1year.) when compared to the older group (>1 year.) (P=0.0845). There was no relationship between prothymosin α gene expression and gender (P=0.3029), mass screening case or not (P=0.3007), or stage. The prothymosin α mRNA expression levels were correlated with N-myc mRNA levels (P=0.006). Thus we suggest that prothymosin α plays an active role as a target of N-myc in neuroblastoma.