Circulating miR-17, miR-20a, miR-29c, and miR-223 combined as non-invasive biomarkers in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
MicroRNAs have been considered as a kind of potential novel biomarker for cancer detection due to their remarkable stability in the blood and the characteristics of their expression profile in many diseases.


METHODS
We performed microarray-based serum miRNA profiling on the serum of twenty nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients at diagnosis along with 20 non-cancerous individuals as controls. This was followed by a real-time quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) in a separate cohort of thirty patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and thirty age- matched non-cancerous volunteers. A model for diagnosis was established by a conversion of mathematical calculation formula which has been validated by analyzing 74 cases of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 57 cases of non-cancerous volunteers.


RESULTS
The profiles showed that 39 and 17 miRNAs are exclusively expressed in the serum of non-cancerous volunteers and of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma respectively. 4 miRNAs including miR-17, miR-20a, miR-29c, and miR-223 were found to be expressed differentially in the serum of NPC compared with that of non-cancerous control. Based on this, a diagnosis equation with Ct difference method has been established to distinguish NPC cases and non-cancerous controls and validated with high sensitivity and specificity.


CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrate that the serum miRNA-based biomarker model become a novel tool for NPC detection. The circulating 4-miRNA-based method may provide a novel strategy for NPC diagnosis.
Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China.
Xi
X
Zeng
Juanjuan
J
Xiang
Minghua
M
Wu
Wei
W
Xiong
Hailin
H
Tang
Min
M
Deng
Xiayu
X
Li
Qianjin
Q
Liao
Bo
B
Su
Zhaohui
Z
Luo
Yanhong
Y
Zhou
Ming
M
Zhou
Zhaoyang
Z
Zeng
Xiaoling
X
Li
Shourong
S
Shen
Cijun
C
Shuai
Guiyuan
G
Li
Jiasheng
J
Fang
Shuping
S
Peng
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D011379:Prognosis; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs; C524941:MIRN17 microRNA, human; C534451:MIRN20a microRNA, human; C525067:MIR223, human; C532045:MIRN29a microRNA, human