title: Differentially expressed microRNAs in the serum of cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients before and after surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to detect the serum microRNAs (miRNAs) that are differentially expressed in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) patients and negative controls, with a focus on the miRNA profiles of the patients before and after surgery. The aim of the study is to evaluate the potential of these miRNAs as novel markers for the post-therapeutic monitoring of cervical SCC patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 765 serum miRNAs from 10 cervical SCC patients before surgery, 10 cervical SCC patients after surgery, and 10 negative controls were profiled using a TaqMan MicroRNA Array. A set of selected differentially expressed miRNAs were further analyzed in the patients at different perioperative periods, including preoperative, 1 week postoperative, and one month postoperative. The results showed that several serum miRNAs were differentially expressed in the cervical SCC patients compared with the negative controls, including miR-646, miR-141* and miR-542-3p. More importantly, we found that levels of specific serum miRNAs were deregulated in the pre- and postoperative stages, and these miRNAs could be useful for post-therapeutic monitoring of disease progression. Finally, we depicted a regulatory network of differentially expressed serum miRNAs, and many possible target genes were predicted in the estrogen-mediated signal pathways, supporting the hypothesis that cervical SCC is a hormone-associated gynecological disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that the circulating miRNAs miR-646, miR-141* and miR-542-3p could potentially serve as non-invasive biomarkers for cervical SCC. The levels of these specific miRNAs might be useful for the post-therapeutic monitoring of disease progression. This is the first report showing that circulating miRNAs could serve as biomarkers for the therapeutic intervention of cervical SCC.
authors.forename: Wen-Tao
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ya-Nan
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jin-Xing
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Mei-Ying
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China. lsscyq@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yue-Qin
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shun-Jia
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000601:surgery; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D011184:Postoperative Period; D057234:Preoperative Period; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics* / Q000601:surgery
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C533895:MIRN141 microRNA, human; C572357:MIRN542 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs