Microbial Biotechnology Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.
Endemic Medicine Department, Kasr Elainy Hospitals, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
Genet Test Mol Biomarkers. 2020 Dec;24(12):825-834. doi: 10.1089/gtmb.2020.0184. Epub 2020 Dec 7.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) rates are affected by genetics, ethnicity, and environmental factors; it is considered one of the most aggressive human malignancies with high mortality and morbidity rates worldwide due, in part, to its asymptomatic nature during the early stages of disease. Owing to the impact of microRNA (miRNA) dysregulation on CRC development and progression, this study was conducted to explore the expression levels of mir-21, -23a, and -27a in the sera and tissues of Egyptian CRC patients and to evaluate their diagnostic efficacy based on circulating levels. In the test phase, the relative expression levels of the studied miRNAs were evaluated in the sera of 70 participants (35 CRC patients and 35 healthy controls) using quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction and to verify their diagnostic value. The exploratory phase was designed to validate the tumor-derived trait by comparing the miRNA levels in the cancerous and adjacent noncancerous tissues. The relative expression levels of the studied miRNAs were significantly upregulated in both serum and tumor tissues of the patients compared to their corresponding controls. In addition, significant positive correlations were found between the relative expression levels of the studied miRNAs in serum samples and their levels in the matched CRC tissues. The serum expression levels of mir-21 and -23a were more predictive of CRC than mir-27a. Circulating mir-21, -23a, and -27a expression levels appear to be valuable diagnostic biomarkers for CRC, especially when combined.
结直肠癌（CRC）的发病率受遗传、种族和环境因素的影响；由于其在疾病早期无症状的性质，CRC 被认为是全球最具侵袭性的人类恶性肿瘤之一，死亡率和发病率都很高。由于 microRNA（miRNA）失调对 CRC 发展和进展的影响，本研究旨在探讨埃及 CRC 患者血清和组织中 mir-21、-23a 和-27a 的表达水平，并基于循环水平评估其诊断效果。在测试阶段，使用实时定量聚合酶链反应评估 70 名参与者（35 名 CRC 患者和 35 名健康对照者）血清中研究 miRNA 的相对表达水平，并验证其诊断价值。探索性阶段旨在通过比较癌组织和相邻非癌组织中的 miRNA 水平来验证肿瘤来源的特征。与相应的对照组相比，患者的血清和肿瘤组织中研究 miRNA 的相对表达水平均显著上调。此外，在血清样本中研究 miRNA 的相对表达水平与其在匹配的 CRC 组织中的水平之间发现了显著的正相关关系。miR-21 和 miR-23a 的血清表达水平比 miR-27a 更能预测 CRC。循环 mir-21、-23a 和-27a 的表达水平似乎是 CRC 的有价值的诊断生物标志物，尤其是联合使用时。
