Prognostic significance of serum prohibitin level in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients

Background
Prohibitin (PHB) is a protein that is present in humans and is encoded by the PHB gene. The prohibitin family is composed of two members, PHB1 and PHB2. PHB1 is described as a tumor suppressor gene for its ability to inhibit cell proliferation. Prohibitins (PHB1 and PHB2) have been proposed to play an important role in cancer development and progression. PHB1 and PHB2 were found to be overexpressed in a panel of leukemia and lymphoma cell lines compared with normal naïve peripheral blood mononuclear cells.


Aim
The aim was to measure the serum level of prohibitin in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients and to correlate its level with prognostic markers and with patient outcomes.


Patients and methods
Serum prohibitin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 70 newly diagnosed MM patients aged more than or equal to 18 years. All patients were recruited from the Clinical Hematology Department, Ain Shams University Hospital (Cairo, Egypt) from April 2020 to April 2021 and were followed up for 1 year.


Results

The study measured serum levels of prohibitin in newly diagnosed MM patients, which increases the expression of prohibitin in MM patients. There was a significant correlation between serum prohibitin levels and the following parameters: age (years) (
r
=0.441;
P
value less than 0.001), serum creatinine (mg/dl)
r
=0.643;
P
value less than 0.001); T.Ca (mg/dl) (
r
=0.432;
P
value less than 0.001), B2 microglobulin (μg/m) (
r
=0.873;
P
value less than 0.001), plasma cells% in BM (
r
=0.852,
P
value less than 0.001). L), whereby increased prohibitin was associated with decreased Hb and platelet levels. This indicates a strong direct relationship as an increase in these previous factors leads to an increase in the serum prohibitin level (ng/l). There was also a significant correlation when comparing the serum prohibtin level with Hb (g/dl), Plt (×10
3
), which increases prohibitin leading to a decrease in Hb and plt. There was a significant correlation between serum prohibtin levels and Bence Jones protein in the study group, with increased prohibtin levels in study group leading to an increase in Bence Jones protein (
P
<0.05).

The study showed that elevated serum prohibitin levels in newly diagnosed MM patients have prognostic value, with higher prohibtin levels associated with a poorer prognosis.


Conclusion
Prohibitin has prognostic significance in newly diagnosed patients with MM as increased prohibitin levels lead to a poor prognosis.