Plasma Circulating Mirnas Profiling for Identification of Potential Breast Cancer Early Detection Biomarkers

Objective: This study aimed to characterize the miRNA expression profiles from plasma samples of our local breast cancer patients in comparison to healthy control by using miRNA PCR Array. Methods: In this study, plasma miRNA profiles from eight early-stage breast cancer patients and nine age-matched (± 2 years) healthy controls were characterized by miRNA array-based approach, followed by differential gene expression analysis, Independent T-test and construction of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve to determine the capability of the assays to discriminate between breast cancer and the healthy control. Results: Based on the 372-miRNAs microarray profiling, a set of 40 differential miRNAs was extracted regarding to the fold change value at 2 and above. We further sub grouped 40 miRNAs of breast cancer patients that were significantly expressed at 2-fold change and higher. In this set, we discovered that 24 miRNAs were significantly upregulated and 16 miRNAs were significantly downregulated in breast cancer patients, as compared to the miRNA expression of healthy subjects. ROC curve analysis revealed that seven miRNAs (miR-125b-5p, miR-142-3p, miR-145-5p, miR-193a-5p, miR-27b-3p, miR-22-5p and miR-423-5p) had area under curve (AUC) value > 0.7 (AUC p-value < 0.05). Overlapping findings from differential gene expression analysis, ROC analysis, and Independent T-Test resulted in three miRNAs (miR-27b-3p, miR-22-5p, miR-145-5p). Cohen’s effect size for these three miRNAs was large with d value are more than 0.95. Conclusion: miR-27b-3p, miR-22-5p, miR-145-5p could be potential biomarkers to distinguish breast cancer patients from healthy controls. A validation study for these three miRNAs in an external set of samples is ongoing.     

Differential microRNA Expression by Solexa Sequencing in the Sera of Ovarian Cancer Patients

MicroRNAs are a class of small noncoding RNA which play important regulatory roles in a variety of cancers.MiRNA-specific expression profiles have been reported for several pathological conditions. In this study, wecombined large scale parallel Solexa sequencing to identify 11 up-regulated miRNAs and 19 down-regulatedmiRNAs with computational techniques in the sera of ovarian cancer patients while using healthy serum as thecontrol. Among the above, four miRNAs (miR-22, miR-93, miR-106b, miR-451) were validated by quantitativeRT-PCR and found to be significantly aberrantly expressed in the serum of ovarian cancer patients (P<0.05).There were no significant differences between samples from cancer stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ and Ⅲ/Ⅳ. However, the levelsof miR-106b (p=0.003) and miR-451 (p=0.007) were significantly different in those patients under and over 51yearsof age. MiR-451 and miR-93 were also specific when analyzed with reference to different levels of CA125.This study shows that Solexa sequencing provides a promising method for cancer-related miRNA profiling, andselectively expressed miRNAs could be used as potential serum-based biomarkers for ovarian cancer diagnosis.     

Identification of aberrantly expressed miRNAs in rectal cancer

Disturbance of miRNA expression may play a key role in the initiation and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). CRC should be viewed as a heterogeneous disease, but previous studies have only screened dysregulated miRNAs in CRC from a panel of 96, 145, 287 and 455 miRNAs, respectively. It is necessary to identify new aberrantly expressed miRNAs in rectal cancer. In this study tissue samples were derived from patients undergoing a surgical procedure to remove a portion of cancers. The expression profile of 904 miRNAs was analyzed using a miRCURY? LNA Array from 6-paired rectal cancers and normal tissues. The expression levels of 4 miRNAs were compared by real-time PCR between colon and rectal cancer, and also the expression levels of metastatic miRNAs in different stages of rectal cancer were analyzed. We found that 67 miRNA precursors are upregulated in rectal cancer (p<0.05) and 21 of those have never been reported in colorectal cancer (CRC); 39 miRNA precursors are downregulated (p<0.05) and 24 novel dysregulated miRNAs were identified in rectal cancer. miR-31, miR-126 and miR-143 are differentially expressed between colon cancer and rectal cancer. Here, we report an miRNA profile of rectal cancer, and we identified differential expression patterns of miRNAs between rectal and colon cancers. This novel information may suggest the potential roles of these miRNAs in the diagnosis of rectal cancer.     

microRNA Expression Profile in Patients with Stage II Colorectal Cancer: A Turkish Referral Center Study

Background: There are increasing data about microRNAs (miRNA) in the literature, providing abundantevidence that they play important roles in pathogenesis and development of colorectal cancer. In this study, weaimed to investigate the miRNA expression profiles in surgically resected specimens of patients with recurrentand non-recurrent colorectal cancer. Materials and Methods: The study population included 40 patients withstage II colorectal cancer (20 patients with recurrent tumors, and 20 sex and age matched patients withoutrecurrence), who underwent curative colectomy between 2004 and 2011 without adjuvant therapy. Expression of16 miRNAs (miRNA-9, 21, 30d, 31, 106a, 127, 133a, 133b, 135b, 143, 145, 155, 182, 200a, 200c, 362) was verifiedby quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in all resected colon cancer tissue samples andin corresponding normal colonic tissues. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS 15 software. Values werestatistically significantly changed in 40 cancer tissues when compared to the corresponding 40 normal colonictissues (p<0.001). MiR-30d, miR-133a, miR-143, miR-145 and miR-362 expression was statistically significantlydownregulated in 40 resected colorectal cancer tissue samples (p<0.001). When we compared subgroups,miRNA expression profiles of 20 recurrent cancer tissues were similar to all 40 cancer tissues. However in 20non-recurrent cancer tissues, miR-133a expression was not significantly downregulated, moreover miR-133bexpression was significantly upregulated (p<0.05). Conclusions: Our study revealed dysregulation of expressionof ten miRNAs in Turkish colon cancer patients. These miRNAs may be used as potential biomarkers for earlydetection, screening and surveillance of colorectal cancer, with functional effects on tumor cell behavior.     

Systematic analysis of microRNAs targeting the androgen receptor in prostate cancer cells

Androgen receptor (AR) is expressed in all stages of prostate cancer progression, including in castration-resistant tumors. Eliminating AR function continues to represent a focus of therapeutic investigation, but AR regulatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. To systematically characterize mechanisms involving microRNAs (miRNAs), we conducted a gain-of function screen of 1129 miRNA molecules in a panel of human prostate cancer cell lines and quantified changes in AR protein content using protein lysate microarrays. In this way, we defined 71 unique miRNAs that influenced the level of AR in human prostate cancer cells. RNA sequencing data revealed that the 3'UTR of AR (and other genes) is much longer than currently used in miRNA target prediction programs. Our own analyses predicted that most of the miRNA regulation of AR would target an extended 6 kb 3'UTR. 3'UTR-binding assays validated 13 miRNAs that are able to regulate this long AR 3'UTR (miR-135b, miR-185, miR-297, miR-299-3p, miR-34a, miR-34c, miR-371-3p, miR-421, miR-449a, miR-449b, miR-634, miR-654-5p, and miR-9). Fifteen AR downregulating miRNAs decreased androgen-induced proliferation of prostate cancer cells. In particular, analysis of clinical prostate cancers confirmed a negative correlation of miR-34a and miR-34c expression with AR levels. Our findings establish that miRNAs interacting with the long 3'UTR of the AR gene are important regulators of AR protein levels, with implications for developing new therapeutic strategies to inhibit AR function and androgen-dependent cell growth.     

Association of miR-193b Down-regulation and miR-196a up-Regulation with Clinicopathological Features and Prognosis in Gastric Cancer

Dysregulated expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been shown to be closely associated with tumordevelopment, progression, and carcinogenesis. However, their clinical implications for gastric cancer remainelusive. To investigate the hypothesis that genome-wide alternations of miRNAs differentiate gastric cancer tissuesfrom those matched adjacent non-tumor tissues (ANTTs), miRNA arrays were employed to examine miRNAexpression profiles for the 5-pair discovery stage, and the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRTPCR)was applied to validate candidate miRNAs for 48-pair validation stage. Furthermore, the relationshipbetween altered miRNA and clinicopathological features and prognosis of gastric cancer was explored. Amonga total of 1,146 miRNAs analyzed, 16 miRNAs were found to be significantly different expressed in tissues fromgastric cancer compared to ANTTs (p<0.05). qRT-PCR further confirmed the variation in expression of miR-193band miR-196a in the validation stage. Down-expression of miR-193b was significantly correlated with Laurentype, differentiation, UICC stage, invasion, and metastasis of gastric cancer (p<0.05), while over-expression ofmiR-196a was significantly associated with poor differentiation (p=0.022). Moreover, binary logistic regressionanalysis demonstrated that the UICC stage was a significant risk factor for down-expression of miR-193b (adjustedOR=8.69; 95%CI=1.06-56.91; p=0.043). Additionally, Kaplan-Meier survival curves indicated that patientswith a high fold-change of down-regulated miR-193b had a significantly shorter survival time (n=19; mediansurvival=29 months) compared to patients with a low fold-change of down-regulated miR-193b (n=29; mediansurvival=54 months) (p=0.001). Overall survival time of patients with a low fold-change of up-regulated miR-196a (n=27; median survival=52 months) was significantly longer than that of patients with a high fold-changeof up-regulated miR-196a (n=21; median survival=46 months) (p=0.003). Hence, miR-193b and miR-196a maybe applied as novel and promising prognostic markers in gastric cancer.     

Identification of new aberrantly expressed miRNAs in intestinal-type gastric cancer and its clinical significance

miRNAs are small 19 to 22 nucleotide sequences of RNA that negatively regulate gene expression. miRNA expression profiles may become useful biomarkers for diagnostics, prognosis and prediction of response to treat, and it could be a powerful tool for cancer prevention and therapeutics. Several miRNA expression profiles of miRNAs in gastric cancer have been reported, but these studies screened only few miRNAs and samples used in experiments include several different subtypes of gastric cancers, which decrease the sensitivity to identify new aberrant miRNAs. In this study, a miRNA expression profile was identified by miRCURY LNA Array (v.14.0) between intestinal-type gastric cancers and normal tissues. Forty miRNA precursors were up-regulated and thirty-six miRNA were down-regulated in intestinal-type gastric cancers (p<0.01). Sixteen new miRNAs were found in intestinal-type gastric cancers. Seventeen new miRNAs were found in intestinal-type gastric cancers. miR-145, miR-27a, miR-494 are differently expressed between intestinal-type and diffuse-type gastric cancers. miR-32, miR-182 and miR-143 dysregulated expression levels are related with different pathological stages of intestinal-type gastric cancers (p<0.01). Taken together, aberrantly expressed miRNAs may offer new clues to tumorigenesis of gastric cancers. miR-32, miR-182 and miR-143 may be potential diagnostic biomarkers for intestinal-type gastric cancers.     

Identification of Differentially Expressed Mirna by Next Generation Sequencing in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Patients of South Indian Origin

Purpose: miRNAs are known to be aberrantly expressed in the serum, tissue, and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMC) of cancer patients and could serve as potential noninvasive diagnostic markers for breast cancer. The aim of this study was to identify the differentially expressed miRNA using next-generation sequencing (NGS) from the paired PBMC samples from breast cancer patients and age-matched healthy individuals and explore their functional significance. Methods: In this study, PBMCs were employed for the detection of miRNAs by NGS in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) women of South Indian origin who were divided into three age groups, (a) 40yrs-50yrs (b) 50yrs-60yrs and (c) 60yrs-70yrs, compared with age-matched control groups. Results: Four miRNAs (hsa-miR-192-5p, hsa-miR-24-2-2p, hsa-miR-3609, and hsa-miR-664b-3p) were found to be differentially expressed among LABC patients compared with age matched healthy women of the South Indian population. While miR-24-2-5p, miR3609, and miR-664b-3p were down-regulated, miR-192-5p was up-regulated. Gene Ontology (GO) annotations implicated miRNA with signaling pathways in peripheral nerve synapses, glutamatergic synapse, and cell morphogenesis, all of which play a pivotal role in the manifestation of cancer. Conclusion: Four miRNAs- 3 (While miR-24-2-5p, miR3609, and miR-664b-3p) downregulated and one upregulated (miR-192-5p) were identified as potential biomarkers for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. These markers could be validated in studies with a larger sample size.     

液态活检miR-509-5p/miR-124比值诊断膀胱癌的临床应用

背景与目的:液态活检是一种从血液、尿液等非实体生物组织中取样分析,主要用于恶性肿瘤诊断、监测及判断预后的方法.该研究通过优化尿液miRNA的提取方法,建立标准化的液态活检手段,筛选并验证膀胱癌患者尿液miRNA标志物以阐明其临床应用价值.方法:收集2014年1月—2015年9月膀胱癌患者及健康对照者的尿液,应用miRNA表达谱芯片进行筛选,在78例膀胱癌患者及23例健康对照者的晨尿中进行实时荧光定量聚合酶链反应(real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction,RTFQ-PCR)验证,分析液态活检的miRNA标志物与膀胱癌临床病理的关系及其诊断价值.结果:通过对6例膀胱癌及6例健康对照者的尿液miRNA表达谱进行分析,筛选出了10个miRNA有差异表达,结合既往文献报道的膀胱癌尿液miRNA标志物,我们挑选了20个miRNA进行RTFQ-PCR验证,发现miR-509-5p/miR-124比值在膀胱癌患者尿液中表达水平较健康对照者高,差异有统计学意义(P<0.0001).尿液miR-509-5p/miR-124比值随着患者肿瘤分期和肿瘤分级的上升而升高(P=0.003).当界值定在0.41时,miR-509-5p/miR-124比值对膀胱癌的诊断灵敏度为73.1%,特异度为82.6%,曲线下面积(area under the curve,AUC)达到0.864,比尿液脱落细胞学的诊断价值高(P=0.0002).结论:该研究优化了尿液miRNA的提取方法,建立了标准化的液态活检尿液miRNA标志物的检测手段,发现miR-509-5p/miR-124比值可能是膀胱癌理想的诊断标志物.     

MicroRNA profiling and prediction of recurrence/relapse-free survival in stage I lung cancer

About 30% stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing resection will recur. Robust prognostic markers are required to better manage therapy options. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs of 19-25 nt and play important roles in gene regulation in human cancers. The purpose of this study is to identify miRNA expression profiles that would better predict prognosis of stage I NSCLC. MiRNAs extracted from 527 stage I NSCLC patients were profiled on the human miRNA expression profiling v2 panel (Illumina). The expression profiles were analyzed for their association with cancer subtypes, lung cancer brain metastasis and recurrence/relapse free survival (RFS). MiRNA expression patterns between lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma differed significantly with 171 miRNAs, including Let-7 family members and miR-205. Ten miRNAs associated with brain metastasis were identified including miR-145*, which inhibit cell invasion and metastasis. Two miRNA signatures that are highly predictive of RFS were identified. The first contained 34 miRNAs derived from 357 stage I NSCLC patients independent of cancer subtype, whereas the second containing 27 miRNAs was adenocarcinoma specific. Both signatures were validated using formalin-fixed paraffin embedded and/or fresh frozen tissues in independent data set with 170 stage I patients. Our findings have important prognostic or therapeutic implications for the management of stage I lung cancer patients. The identified miRNAs hold great potential as targets for histology-specific treatment or prevention and treatment of recurrent disease.     

MicroRNA expression profiling involved in doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity using high-throughput deep-sequencing analysis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are sensitive biomarkers and endogenous repressors of gene expression by decreasing mRNA stability and interfering with mRNA translation. Despite a number of investigations revealing the dysregulation of miRNA expression associated with cardiotoxicity induced by doxorubicin (Dox), perturbation of miRNAs directly resulting from Dox at early stage in cardiomyocytes and the target gene interaction remain largely unknown. In the present study, high-throughput deep-sequencing was used to analyze changes in global miRNA expression in H9c2 cardiomyocytes exposed to 5 µg/ml Dox for 0, 12 or 24 h. Compared with the 0-h time point, the expression levels of 386 unique miRNAs were altered. Based on miRNA expression and fold-change, the target genes of 76 selected miRNAs were further analyzed using gene interaction networks and pathway enrichment analysis. These miRNAs were involved in the regulation of different pathways, whose functions included apoptosis, cell proliferation, extracellular matrix remodeling, oxidative stress and lipid metabolism. These differentially expressed miRNAs included let-7 family, miR-29b-3p, miR-378-3/5p, miR-351-3p, miR-664-3p, miR-455-3p, miR-298-3p, miR-702-5p, miR-128-1-5p, miR-671 and miR-421-5p. The present data indicated that global wide miRNA profiling in Dox-induced cardiomyocytes may provide a novel mechanistic insight into understanding Dox-induced heart failure and cardiotoxicity, as well as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets.     

MicroRNA在六种不同器官肿瘤细胞系中的差异表达

[目的]利用生物芯片技术分析microRNA（miRNA）在六种不同器官肿瘤细胞系中mi-croRNA（miRNA）的表达差异。[方法]将210个（206个miRNA,4个阳性对照）与已知人类和小鼠miRNA互补的序列作为探针,点于玻片上制备寡核苷酸芯片。提取肿瘤细胞（HeLa、MCF-7、A549、HT-29、ES-2、K562）的miRNA,用荧光染料Cy3标记,并与制备好的芯片杂交。用Sca-nArrayTMExpress1.0扫描仪扫描荧光信号,采用ScanArray3.0和Cluster3.0软件分析处理扫描结果。并用Northernblot和RT-PCR方法对芯片检测结果进行验证。[结果]芯片检测到在六种不同器官肿瘤细胞系中,发现115种miRNA存在差异,91种miRNA没有明显差异。其中,miR-21在六种肿瘤细胞表达水平均较高,miR-125b表达水平均较低,let-7在六种细胞系中表达水平较低。miR-17-5p和miR-20a呈集簇表达,在卵巢肿瘤ES-2细胞系中的表达水平高于其它细胞,乳腺肿瘤细胞系MCF-7和宫颈癌细胞系HeLa的miRNA的表达谱聚为一类。[结论]应用生物芯片技术检测细胞中miRNA的表达差异谱是可行的,miRNA可能参与肿瘤的发生发展。     

Circulating Cell-free miRNA Expression and its Association with Clinicopathologic Features in Inflammatory and Non- Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Recent discovery showing the presence of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the circulation sparked interest in their use as potential biomarkers. Our previous studies showed the diagnostic potential of miR-451 as a serological marker for inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), miR-337- 5p and miR-30b for non-inflammatory breast cancer (non-IBC). The aim of this study is to investigate the prognostic values of circulating miRNAs by comparing the amounts of 12 circulating miRNAs in the serum of IBC and non-IBC from Tunisian breast cancer patients, and by determinating whether correlated pairs of miRNAs could provide useful information in the diagnosis of IBC and non-IBC patients. TaqMan qPCR was performed to detect circulating expression of miRNAs in serum of 20 IBC, 20 non-IBC and 20 healthy controls. Nonparametric rank Spearman rho correlation coefficient was used to examine the prognostic value of miRNAs and to assess the correlation profile between miRNAs expression. Further, a large number of miRNAs were highly correlated (rho>0.5) in both patients groups and controls. Also, the correlations profiles were different between IBC, non-IBC and healthy controls indicating important changes in molecular pathways in cancer cells. Our results showed that miR-335 was significantly overexpressed in premenopausal non-IBC patients; miR-24 was significantly overexpressed in non-IBC postmenopausal patients. Patients with previous parity had higher serum of miR-342-5p levels than those without. Furthermore, patients with HER2 IBC present lower serum levels of miR-15a than patients with HER2- disease. Together, these results underline the potential of miRNAs to function as diagnostic and prognostic markers for IBC and non-IBC, with links to the menopausal state, Her2 status and parity.     

血清微小RNA(miR-129-3p、miR-767-3p和miR-877)在结直肠癌诊断中的价值

目的:探讨血清微小RNA (microRNA,mi RNA)在结直肠癌诊断中的价值.方法:通过miRNA表达谱芯片检测7例结直肠癌患者血清和10例健康志愿者血清中差异表达的miRNA.应用实时荧光定量PCR法在40例结直肠癌患者血清和18例健康志愿者血清中验证芯片结果,并分析血清特异性miRNA在结直肠癌诊断中的价值.结果:筛选获得10个在结直肠癌中特异性表达的血清miRNA,实时荧光定量PCR验证后获得一组结直肠癌特异性血清miRNA(miR-129-3p、miR-767-3p及miR-877*)生物标志物,这组生物标志物组合检测结直肠癌的灵敏度为77.78％、特异度为100％,并可产生最大受试者工作特征曲线(receiver operator characteristic curve,ROC)的曲线下面积(area under the curve,AUC)为0.914.结论:miR-129-3p、miR-767-3p和miR-877*生物标志物组合有望成为结直肠癌筛查和早期诊断的指标.