Usmani Ambreen, Shoro Amir Ali, Shirazi Bushra, Memon Zahida
Prof. Ambreen Usmani, Prof. & HOD, Anatomy, Bahria University Medical and Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Prof. Amir Ali Shoro, Principal & Dean, Professor of Anatomy, Liaquat National Hospital & Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Pak J Med Sci. 2016 May-Jun;32(3):766-72. doi: 10.12669/pjms.323.9321.
MicroRNAs (miRs) are non-coding ribonucleic acids consisting of about 18-22 nucleotide bases. Expression of several miRs can be altered in breast carcinomas in comparison to healthy breast tissue, or between various subtypes of breast cancer. These are regulated as either oncogene or tumor suppressors, this shows that their expression is misrepresented in cancers. Some miRs are specifically associated with breast cancer and are affected by cancer-restricted signaling pathways e.g. downstream of estrogen receptor-α or HER2/neu. Connection of multiple miRs with breast cancer, and the fact that most of these post transcript structures may transform complex functional networks of mRNAs, identify them as potential investigative, extrapolative and predictive tumor markers, as well as possible targets for treatment. Investigative tools that are currently available are RNA-based molecular techniques. An additional advantage related to miRs in oncology is that they are remarkably stable and are notably detectable in serum and plasma. Literature search was performed by using database of PubMed, the keywords used were microRNA (52 searches) AND breast cancer (169 searches). PERN was used by database of Bahria University, this included literature and articles from international sources; 2 articles from Pakistan on this topic were consulted (one in international journal and one in a local journal). Of these, 49 articles were shortlisted which discussed relation of microRNA genetic expression in breast cancer. These articles were consulted for this review.
微小RNA（miRs）是由约18 - 22个核苷酸碱基组成的非编码核糖核酸。与健康乳腺组织相比，或在乳腺癌的不同亚型之间，几种miRs的表达可能会发生改变。它们被调控为癌基因或肿瘤抑制因子，这表明它们在癌症中的表达存在异常。一些miRs与乳腺癌特异性相关，并受癌症相关信号通路的影响，例如雌激素受体-α或HER2/neu的下游信号通路。多种miRs与乳腺癌相关，并且这些转录后结构中的大多数可能会改变mRNA的复杂功能网络，这使得它们成为潜在的研究、推断和预测性肿瘤标志物以及可能的治疗靶点。目前可用的研究工具是基于RNA的分子技术。miRs在肿瘤学中的另一个优势是它们非常稳定，并且在血清和血浆中明显可检测到。通过使用PubMed数据库进行文献检索，使用的关键词是微小RNA（52次检索）和乳腺癌（169次检索）。巴哈里亚大学数据库使用了PERN，其中包括来自国际来源的文献和文章；查阅了2篇来自巴基斯坦关于该主题的文章（一篇发表在国际期刊上，一篇发表在当地期刊上）。其中，49篇文章入围，这些文章讨论了微小RNA基因表达与乳腺癌的关系。本综述参考了这些文章。
