title: Technology in MicroRNA Profiling: Circulating MicroRNAs as Noninvasive Cancer Biomarkers in Breast Cancer.
abstract: This report describes technologies to identify and quantify microRNAs (miRNAs) as potential cancer biomarkers, using breast cancer as an example. Most breast cancer patients are not diagnosed until the disease has advanced to later stages, which decreases overall survival rates. Specific miRNAs are up- or downregulated in breast cancer patients at various stages, can be detected in plasma and serum, and have shown promising preliminary clinical sensitivity and specificity for early cancer diagnosis or staging. Nucleic acid testing methods to determine relative concentrations of selected miRNAs include reverse transcription, followed by quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), microarrays, and next-generation sequencing (NGS). Of these methods, NGS is the most powerful approach for miRNA biomarker discovery, whereas RT-qPCR shows the most promise for eventual clinical diagnostic applications.
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pimentel
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonilla
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Yashwanth G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Ravishankar
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Alec
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Contag
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Nimish
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gopal
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: LaCour
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Trenton
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Claremont, CA, USA aniemz@kgi.edu.
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Niemz
mesh_terms: D057205:Automation, Laboratory; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood / Q000737:chemistry; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: RNA sequencing; breast cancer; microRNA; microarray; reverse transcription quantitative PCR