Somatic mitochondrial DNA D-loop mutations in meningioma discovered: A preliminary data

Background and Objective: Meningiomas are among the most common intracranial tumors of the central nervous system. It is widely accepted that the initiation and progression of meningiomas involve the accumulation of nucleus genetic alterations, but little is known about the implication of mitochondrial genomic alterations during development of these tumors. The human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contains a short hypervariable, noncoding displacement loop control region known as the D-Loop. Alterations in the mtDNA D-loop have been reported to occur in most types of human cancers. The purpose of this study was to assess the mtDNA D-loop mutations in Malaysian meningioma patients. Materials and Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from 21 fresh-frozen tumor tissues and blood samples of the same meningioma patients. The entire mtDNA D-loop region (positions 16024-576) was polymerase chain reaction amplified using designed primers, and then amplification products were purified before the direct DNA sequencing proceeds. Results: Overall, 10 (47.6%) patients were detected to harbor a total of 27 somatic mtDNA D-loop mutations. Most of these mtDNA mutations were identified in the hypervariable segment II (40.7%), with 33.3% being located mainly in the conserved sequence block II of the D310 sequence. Furthermore, 58 different germline variations were observed at 21 nucleotide positions. Conclusion: Our results suggest that mtDNA alterations in the D-loop region may be an important and early event in developing meningioma. Further studies are needed, including validation in a larger patient cohort, to verify the clinicopathological outcomes of mtDNA mutation biomarkers in meningiomas.