title: Multiple regression analysis of mRNA-miRNA associations in colorectal cancer pathway.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  MicroRNA (miRNA) is a short and endogenous RNA molecule that regulates posttranscriptional gene expression. It is an important factor for tumorigenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC), and a potential biomarker for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of CRC. Our objective is to identify the related miRNAs and their associations with genes frequently involved in CRC microsatellite instability (MSI) and chromosomal instability (CIN) signaling pathways.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A regression model was adopted to identify the significantly associated miRNAs targeting a set of candidate genes frequently involved in colorectal cancer MSI and CIN pathways. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to construct the model and find the significant mRNA-miRNA associations. We identified three significantly associated mRNA-miRNA pairs: BCL2 was positively associated with miR-16 and SMAD4 was positively associated with miR-567 in the CRC tissue, while MSH6 was positively associated with miR-142-5p in the normal tissue. As for the whole model, BCL2 and SMAD4 models were not significant, and MSH6 model was significant. The significant associations were different in the normal and the CRC tissues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results have laid down a solid foundation in exploration of novel CRC mechanisms, and identification of miRNA roles as oncomirs or tumor suppressor mirs in CRC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Fengfeng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: S C Cesar
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Lawrence W C
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: William C S
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Yip
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Benjamin Y M
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Yung
mesh_terms: D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D053842:Microsatellite Instability; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger