Lu Jun, Getz Gad, Miska Eric A, Alvarez-Saavedra Ezequiel, Lamb Justin, Peck David, Sweet-Cordero Alejandro, Ebert Benjamin L, Mak Raymond H, Ferrando Adolfo A, Downing James R, Jacks Tyler, Horvitz H Robert, Golub Todd R
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02141, USA.
Nature. 2005 Jun 9;435(7043):834-8. doi: 10.1038/nature03702.
Recent work has revealed the existence of a class of small non-coding RNA species, known as microRNAs (miRNAs), which have critical functions across various biological processes. Here we use a new, bead-based flow cytometric miRNA expression profiling method to present a systematic expression analysis of 217 mammalian miRNAs from 334 samples, including multiple human cancers. The miRNA profiles are surprisingly informative, reflecting the developmental lineage and differentiation state of the tumours. We observe a general downregulation of miRNAs in tumours compared with normal tissues. Furthermore, we were able to successfully classify poorly differentiated tumours using miRNA expression profiles, whereas messenger RNA profiles were highly inaccurate when applied to the same samples. These findings highlight the potential of miRNA profiling in cancer diagnosis.
最近的研究揭示了一类名为微小RNA（miRNA）的小非编码RNA的存在，它们在各种生物学过程中具有关键功能。在此，我们使用一种基于磁珠的新型流式细胞术miRNA表达谱分析方法，对来自334个样本（包括多种人类癌症样本）的217种哺乳动物miRNA进行了系统的表达分析。miRNA谱具有惊人的信息量，反映了肿瘤的发育谱系和分化状态。我们观察到，与正常组织相比，肿瘤中的miRNA普遍下调。此外，我们能够使用miRNA表达谱成功地对低分化肿瘤进行分类，而将信使RNA谱应用于相同样本时则极不准确。这些发现突出了miRNA谱在癌症诊断中的潜力。
