miRNA-21 and miRNA-34a Are Potential Minimally Invasive Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most deadly cancers, and its diagnosis often requires invasive procedures. Deregulated miRNA expression has been described in patients with PDAC. In this study, we analyzed the expression levels of 6 miRNAs (miR-21, -34a, -155, -196a, -200b, and -376a involved in PDAC tumorigenesis) in serum and salivary samples to assess their potential role as circulating diagnostics biomarkers.


METHODS
Serum and salivary samples were collected from patients with PDAC and healthy controls, and miRNA levels were quantified using qRT-PCR. Twenty-four patients with PDAC and 10 healthy controls were recruited.


RESULTS
A significant difference between PDAC and healthy groups was observed for the expression of miR-21 and miR-34a (P < 0.001 and P = 0.001) in serum samples. Both miRNAs accurately discriminated between the 2 groups, with an area under the curve for miR-21 and miR-34a of 0.889 (P = 0.001) and 0.865 (P = 0.002), respectively. In general, the expression of miRNAs between salivary samples did not differ.


CONCLUSIONS
Serum miR-21 and miR-34a are potentially useful diagnostic biomarkers of PDAC. In addition, our results suggest that these miRNAs are not differentially expressed in saliva, making them unsuitable for use as noninvasive biomarkers for diagnostic purposes.
From the *Programa de Pós-graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; †Laboratório de Medicina Genômica, Centro de Pesquisa Experimental-Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre; ‡Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre; §Laboratório de Bioinformática e Biologia de Sistemas, Universidade Federal do Paraná; ∥Grupo de Vias Biliares e Pâncreas-Cirurgia do Aparelho Digestivo, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre; ¶Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina: Ciências Cirúrgicas; and #Unidade de Análises Moleculares e de Proteínas, Centro de Pesquisa Experimental, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Bárbara
B
Alemar
Patrícia
P
Izetti
Cleandra
C
Gregório
Gabriel S
GS
Macedo
Mauro Antonio Alves
MA
Castro
Alessandro Bersch
AB
Osvaldt
Ursula
U
Matte
Patricia
P
Ashton-Prolla
D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D021441:Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C524940:MIRN21 microRNA, human; C522425:MIRN34 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs