title: Circulating Serum miRNAs as Diagnostic Markers for Colorectal Cancer.
abstract: The study was designed to assess the possibility of using circulating miRNAs (serum miRNAs) as diagnostic biomarkers in colorectal cancer (CRC) and to identify their possibility as candidates for targeted therapy.
  
  
  
  The study involved two sample sets: 1- a training set which included 90 patients with colorectal related disease (30 with CRC, 18 with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), 18 with colonic polyps (CP) and 24 with different colonic symptoms but without any colonoscopic abnormality who were enrolled as control group) and 2- a validation set which included 100 CRC patients. Serum miRNAs were extracted from all subjects to assess the expression profiles for the following miRNAs (miR-17, miR-18a, miR-19a, miR-19b, miR-20a, miR-21, miR-146a, miR-223, miR-24, miR-454, miR-183, miR-135a, miR- 135b and miR- 92a) using the custom miScript miRNA PCR-based sybergreen array. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the studied miRNAs for colorectal cancer diagnosis.
  
  
  
  Data analysis of miRNA from the training set showed that; compared to control group, only miR-19b was significantly up-regulated in patients with IBD group (fold change = 5.24, p = 0.016), whereas in patients with colonic polyps, miR-18a was significantly up-regulated (fold change = 3.49, p-value = 0.018). On the other hand, miR-17, miR-19a, miR-20a and miR-223 were significantly up-regulated (fold change = 2.35, 3.07, 2.38 and 10.35; respectively and p-value = 0.02, 0.015, 0.017 and 0.016; respectively in CRC patients. However, the validation set showed that only miR-223 was significantly up-regulated in CRC patients (fold change = 4.06, p-value = 0.04).
  
  
  
  Aberrant miRNA expressions are highly involved in the cascade of colorectal carcinogenesis. We have found that (miR-17, miR-19a, miR-20a and miR-223) could be used as diagnostic biomarkers for CRC. On the other hand, miR-19b and miR-18a could be used as diagnostic biomarkers for CP and IBD respectively.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Abdel-Rahman N
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Zekri
authors.affiliation: Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Amira Salah El-Din
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Youssef
authors.affiliation: Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mai M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Lotfy
authors.affiliation: Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Reham
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gabr
authors.affiliation: Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ola S
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Auhood
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nassar
authors.affiliation: Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Nehal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hussein
authors.affiliation: Tropical Medicine Department, Kasr El- Aini hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Dalia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Omran
authors.affiliation: Tropical Medicine Department, Kasr El- Aini hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Eman
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Medhat
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Salam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eid
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Marwa Mahmoud
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hussein
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Maha Yahia
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Ismail
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Alkharaj, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Faris Q
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Alenzi
authors.affiliation: Pathology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Abeer A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Bahnassy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003111:Colonic Polyps / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs