Wang Kai, Zhang Zheng-Wen
Department of Plastic Surgery, Henan Provincial People's Hospital Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2015 Oct 1;8(10):13249-54. eCollection 2015.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are a class of small, non-coding RNAs that can regulate the gene expression in various diseases. MicroRNA-203 (miRNA-203 or miR-203) has previously shown significant alteration in a number of cancers. However, the clinical value of miR-203 in melanoma is rarely reported. The present study aimed to clarify the expression pattern and prognostic role of miR-203 in melanoma patients. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis was used to characterize the expression level of miR-203 in 148 cases of melanoma tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Results showed that miR-203 expression was significantly decreased in melanoma tissues compared with that in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (P<0.05). Additionally, chi-square was performed to analyze the relationship between miR-203 and clinicopathological features and the down-regulation of miR-203 was significantly associated with tumor thickness and tumor stage (P<0.05). Moreover, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that low miR-203 expression was associated with short overall survival time of patients. Multivariate analysis indicated that miR-203 could be an independent prognostic marker (P=0.003, HR=2.851, 95% CI=1.439-5.650) in melanoma This study for the first time provided evidence that miR-203 could be an independent potential prognostic marker for patients with melanoma, and might even become a new therapeutic target for the treatment of melanoma.
微小RNA（miRNA或miR）是一类小的非编码RNA，可在多种疾病中调节基因表达。微小RNA-203（miRNA-203或miR-203）先前已显示在多种癌症中发生显著改变。然而，miR-203在黑色素瘤中的临床价值鲜有报道。本研究旨在阐明miR-203在黑色素瘤患者中的表达模式及预后作用。采用定量实时聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）分析来表征148例黑色素瘤组织及相邻非癌组织中miR-203的表达水平。结果显示，与相邻非癌组织相比，黑色素瘤组织中miR-203表达显著降低（P<0.05）。此外，采用卡方检验分析miR-203与临床病理特征之间的关系，miR-203的下调与肿瘤厚度和肿瘤分期显著相关（P<0.05）。而且，Kaplan-Meier分析表明，miR-203低表达与患者较短的总生存时间相关。多因素分析表明，miR-203可能是黑色素瘤的独立预后标志物（P=0.003，HR=2.851，95%CI=1.439-5.650）。本研究首次提供证据表明miR-203可能是黑色素瘤患者的独立潜在预后标志物，甚至可能成为治疗黑色素瘤的新治疗靶点。
