Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran; Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.
Transl Res. 2014 Jun;163(6):578-84. doi: 10.1016/j.trsl.2014.01.009. Epub 2014 Jan 23.
This study investigated to what extent the serum microRNA 21 (miR-21) level alters in response to ionizing radiation (IR). Initially, we evaluated the appropriateness of our RNA extraction efficiency and microRNA assay in serum, and then investigated the serum miR-21 level in 4 patients with breast cancer in 4 stages: pre- and postoperation, at the beginning radiotherapy, and after 25 sessions of radiotherapy with a total of 50 Gy irradiation, as well as in 20 healthy volunteers. The initial analysis showed the appropriateness of our RNA extraction efficiency and microRNA assay in serum for identifying people exposed to IR. We then analyzed the serum miR-21 level in another group of 40 patients with breast cancer before and after radiotherapy. During our large-scale analysis, the miR-21 level before radiotherapy was comparable with healthy volunteers (P = 0.10) and increased significantly after radiotherapy (P < 0.001)-an indication that this could discriminate irradiated patients from nonirradiated ones with high specificity (75%) and sensitivity (80%). According to this study, serum miR-21 has the potential to be used as a biomarker for the identification of people exposed to ionizing radiation.
本研究旨在探讨血清 microRNA 21 (miR-21) 水平对电离辐射 (IR) 的响应程度。首先，我们评估了我们在血清中提取 RNA 效率和 microRNA 检测的适宜性，然后调查了 4 名处于 4 个阶段的乳腺癌患者的血清 miR-21 水平：术前和术后、放射治疗开始时，以及接受 50Gy 总剂量 25 次放疗后，以及 20 名健康志愿者。初步分析表明，我们在血清中提取 RNA 效率和 microRNA 检测适用于识别接触过 IR 的人群。然后，我们在另一组 40 名接受放疗前后的乳腺癌患者中分析了血清 miR-21 水平。在我们的大规模分析中，放疗前的 miR-21 水平与健康志愿者相当（P = 0.10），放疗后显著增加（P < 0.001），表明这可以用高特异性（75%）和敏感性（80%）将接受放疗的患者与未接受放疗的患者区分开来。根据这项研究，血清 miR-21 有可能被用作识别接触电离辐射人群的生物标志物。
