title: Identification of reference miRNAs in human tumors by TCGA miRNA-seq data.
abstract: Although the accuracy of detecting the expression of miRNAs by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is highly dependent on reliable reference miRNAs, many commonly used reference miRNAs are not stably expressed and as such are not suitable for quantification and normalization of qRT-PCR data. To solve this problem, we analyzed the global expression profiles of thousands of samples in 14 types of common human tumors released by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and identified the most stably and highly expressed miRNAs as candidate reference miRNAs in each type of tumor. We found that miR-361-5p and let-7i-5p were the most recommended candidate reference miRNAs in nine and eight types of tumors, respectively, followed by let-7a-5p, mir-28-5p and miR-99b-5p. Our results are of important value to those researchers focused on miRNA; however, these candidate reference miRNAs still need to be validated prior to their use in qRT-PCR studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Eye and ENT Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Yongxing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Yulin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China. Electronic address: qiao.yulei@zs-hospital.sh.cn.
authors.forename: Yulei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China. Electronic address: shi.yu@zs-hospital.sh.cn.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: Reference miRNA; TCGA; miRNA-seq