Author(s)

Rawia Eljaili Elmassry^1*, Aisha Osman Mohammed², Amina Ibrahim Badawy¹, Rasha Saad Abdalhamid¹, Huda Abdalla Eltahir¹, Safa Abass Mohammed¹, Hammad Yahia Abdou¹, Adil Abdelrahim Yousif³, Zubaida Abohumeda Adam¹, Nazik Elmalaika Husaim⁴

¹College of Health Sciences and Nursing, Al-Rayan Colleges, Al Madinah Al Munawwarah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
²Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Alzaiem Alazhari University, Khartoum, Sudan.
³College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁴Faculty of Medicine, Omdurman Islamic University, Khartoum, Sudan.

Background: Protein kinase B (AKT/PKB) family is frequently amplified in ovarian cancer (OC). To the greatest of our knowledge, there is a lack of published reports about the amplification of the genes belonging to the AKT family among Sudanese women with OC. The present study was conducted to detect the AKT1 gene amplification and its association with tumour types, grades, and ages among Sudanese women with OC, bearing in mind the ethnic variation. Methods: This institution-based study included 79 cases of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer (OC) at Omdurman Maternity Hospital in the period 2013-2018. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections were used to extract RNA. AKT1 gene amplification was assessed using quantitative real-time PCR. Results: The mean age (±SD) of included women was 49.29 (±13.612). The amplification of AKT1 gene was observed in 18/79 (22.8%) of OC women, with a high frequency in women with undifferentiated 1/2 (50%), clear cell 2/6 (33.3%), mucinous 3/11 (27.3%), endometrioid 3/17 (17.6%), and serous carcinomas 5/30 OC (16.7%). High frequency was seen in women with low (26.3%; n = 10/28) rather than in higher (19.5%; n = 8/33) grade carcinoma, and in older (25.8%; n = 8/23) rather than younger (18.2%; n = 2/9) women. No significant association between AKT1 gene amplification and tumour types, grades, and ages of women was observed (Fisher’s Exact test: p = 0.405, 0.593 and 0.851, respectively). Conclusion: AKT1 gene amplification arises in around one-fifth of Sudanese women with ovarian cancer (OC). It is seen more in undifferentiated, clear cell, and mucinous tumours types, and more frequently in low tumour grade and older women, but not to a statistically significant level. These outcomes sustenance previous studies suggesting that activated AKT genes have a vital role in OC progression and may offer a plan for targeted therapy and prognostic evaluation.

AKT1 Gene Amplification, Ovarian Cancer, Cross-Sectional Study, Quantitative Real-Time PCR, Sudan

Elmassry, R. , Mohammed, A. , Badawy, A. , Abdalhamid, R. , Eltahir, H. , Mohammed, S. , Abdou, H. , Yousif, A. , Adam, Z. and Husaim, N. (2023) The Frequency of the v-AKT Murine Thymoma Viral Oncogene Homologue 1 Gene Amplification among Sudanese Women with Ovarian Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study. Open Journal of Genetics, 13, 75-82. doi: 10.4236/ojgen.2023.132004.