Chen Meng, Calin George A, Meng Qing H
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
Adv Clin Chem. 2014;67:189-214. doi: 10.1016/bs.acc.2014.09.007. Epub 2014 Nov 4.
microRNAs (miRNAs) are small, nonprotein-coding RNAs that function as posttranscriptional regulators of target genes. miRNAs are involved in multiple cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis processes that are closely related to tumorigenesis. Circulating miRNAs are promising cancer biomarkers under development with great translational potential in personalized medicine. Here, we describe the origin and function of circulating miRNAs and compare the current new high-throughput technology applied to miRNA quantitation. The latest publications on circulating miRNAs were summarized, indicating that miRNAs are potential biomarkers of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response of major cancer types including prostate, breast, lung, colorectal, and hematological cancers. We addressed the strengths and limitations of applying circulating miRNAs in clinical laboratory and several issues associated with the accurate measurement of circulating miRNAs.
微小RNA（miRNA）是一类小的非蛋白质编码RNA，作为靶基因的转录后调节因子发挥作用。miRNA参与多种细胞分化、增殖和凋亡过程，这些过程与肿瘤发生密切相关。循环miRNA是正在开发的有前景的癌症生物标志物，在个性化医学中具有巨大的转化潜力。在此，我们描述了循环miRNA的起源和功能，并比较了目前应用于miRNA定量的新型高通量技术。总结了关于循环miRNA的最新出版物，表明miRNA是包括前列腺癌、乳腺癌、肺癌、结直肠癌和血液系统癌症在内的主要癌症类型的诊断、预后和治疗反应的潜在生物标志物。我们讨论了在临床实验室应用循环miRNA的优势和局限性，以及与循环miRNA准确测量相关的几个问题。
