Thalassemia and Hemoglobinopathy Research Center, Health Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Shahrekord Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran.
Horm Mol Biol Clin Investig. 2020 Mar 13;41(2):hmbci-2019-0027. doi: 10.1515/hmbci-2019-0027.
Background Thyroid cancer (TC) is known to be the most common endocrine malignancy with an incidence rate which has increased by 2.3-fold over the past 30 years. Approximately, 30% of the thyroid fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) outcomes are indecisive. Moreover, researchers recognized multiple differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) as candidate diagnostic markers for thyroid nodules. The purpose of this study was to identify thyroid tumor-associated miRNAs in FNAB with the capacity to be developed as unique biomarkers. Materials and methods According to the study design, a quantitative real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was applied to evaluate the expression levels of nine miRNAs (Let7, miR-34a, miR-146b, miR-221, miR-151, miR-155, miR-181b, miR-222 and miR-375) among 224 FNA samples as the training set. Results The findings of this study revealed that miR-181b and miR-146b are the best predictors to diagnose benign thyroid FNA samples from malignant samples. However, the remaining miRNAs were co-expressed and had no significant effect on the predictor model. On the other hand, sensitivity and specificity of miR-181b and miR-146b were reported at 83.0%-83.0% and 83.0%-66.0%, respectively. Conclusions According to the results of this study, miR-146b and miR-181b might be considered as adjunct markers contributing to thyroid FNAB in tumor types. In addition, miR-146b and miR-181b were recognized as biomarkers for discriminating benign thyroid nodules from malignant ones. It is suggested that further prospective clinical trials be conducted to evaluate the accuracy of such findings in a larger cohort and determine the clinical uses.
甲状腺癌（TC）是最常见的内分泌恶性肿瘤，在过去 30 年中，其发病率增加了 2.3 倍。大约 30%的甲状腺细针穿刺活检（FNAB）结果不确定。此外，研究人员发现多个差异表达的 microRNAs（miRNAs）可作为甲状腺结节的候选诊断标志物。本研究旨在确定 FNAB 中与甲状腺肿瘤相关的 miRNA，这些 miRNA 有潜力成为独特的生物标志物。
根据研究设计，应用定量实时逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）评估 224 个 FNAB 样本中 9 个 miRNA（Let7、miR-34a、miR-146b、miR-221、miR-151、miR-155、miR-181b、miR-222 和 miR-375）的表达水平。结果：本研究发现 miR-181b 和 miR-146b 是诊断良性甲状腺 FNAB 样本和恶性样本的最佳预测因子。然而，其余 miRNA 共同表达，对预测模型没有显著影响。另一方面，miR-181b 和 miR-146b 的敏感性和特异性分别为 83.0%-83.0%和 83.0%-66.0%。结论：根据本研究结果，miR-146b 和 miR-181b 可作为辅助标志物，有助于甲状腺 FNAB 进行肿瘤分类。此外，miR-146b 和 miR-181b 可作为区分良性和恶性甲状腺结节的生物标志物。建议进一步开展前瞻性临床试验，在更大的队列中评估这些发现的准确性，并确定其临床应用。
