title: MicroRNA expression profiles classify human cancers.
abstract: Recent work has revealed the existence of a class of small non-coding RNA species, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), which have critical functions across various biological processes. Here we use a new, bead-based flow cytometric miRNA expression profiling method to present a systematic expression analysis of 217 mammalian miRNAs from 334 samples, including multiple human cancers. The miRNA profiles are surprisingly informative, reflecting the developmental lineage and differentiation state of the tumours. We observe a general downregulation of miRNAs in tumours compared with normal tissues. Furthermore, we were able to successfully classify poorly differentiated tumours using miRNA expression profiles, whereas messenger RNA profiles were highly inaccurate when applied to the same samples. These findings highlight the potential of miRNA profiling in cancer diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02141, USA.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Gad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Getz
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Miska
authors.forename: Ezequiel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alvarez-Saavedra
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lamb
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Peck
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sweet-Cordero
authors.forename: Benjamin L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Ebert
authors.forename: Raymond H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.forename: Adolfo A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ferrando
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Downing
authors.forename: Tyler
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jacks
authors.forename: H Robert
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Horvitz
authors.forename: Todd R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Golub
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs