Circulating microRNAs - a new horizon in molecular diagnosis of breast cancer
Hoda A. Hagrass1, Samar Sharaf1, Heba F. Pasha2, Enas A. Tantawy3, Randa H. Mohamed2, Rasha Kassem4
1 Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt
2 Medical Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt
3 Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt
4 Surgery Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt
Correspondence:
Hoda A. Hagrass, email:
Keywords: Biomarker, breast cancer, microRNAs, real time PCR, diagnosis
Received: April 14, 2015 Accepted: May 28, 2015 Published: June 3, 2015
Abstract
Background: The potential use of microRNAs (miRNAs) as ideal tumor markers has been the focus of recent research.
Objective: Our hypothesis was that circulating miRNAs are differentially expressed in pretherapeutic sera of breast cancer patients compared to controls.
Materials and Methods: Using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis, levels of 5 candidate miRNAs (miR10b, miR34a, miR155, miR195 and miR16) were quantified in sera of breast cancer patients and control individuals.
Results: Levels of preoperative sera showed significant upregulation of 3.36 fold rise in miR10b (p<0.001), a 2.07 fold rise in miR155 (p =0.005) and remarkable over expression of 11.9 fold rise in miR195 (p<0.001) of cases than controls. There was significant down regulation of miR34a (0.032, p<0.001). The comparison with the clinicopathological data of the breast cancer patients revealed significant high serum level of miR155 (p =0.004) and miR195 (p =0.002) in patients with lymph node metastasis and higher levels of miR10b (p =0.001) and miR155 (p <0.001) with distant metastasis (M1) than without metastasis (M0), in addition to significant decrease in miR34a (p <0.001) level in M1 than M0 cases.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that systemic circulating miRNAs have potential use as novel biomarkers for breast cancer.
