Sur Daniel, Balacescu Loredana, Cainap Simona S, Visan Simona, Pop Laura, Burz Claudia, Havasi Andrei, Buiga Rares, Cainap Calin, Irimie Alexandru, Balacescu Ovidiu
11th Department of Medical Oncology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Iuliu Hatieganu", Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Department of Medical Oncology, The Oncology Institute "Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta", Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Front Oncol. 2021 May 18;11:651380. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.651380. eCollection 2021.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs represent potential biomarkers for colorectal cancer (CRC). The study hypothesized that miRNAs associated with liver metastases may also contribute to assessing treatment response when associated to plasma exosomes. In this study, we used two sets of biological samples, a collection of tumor tissues harvested from patients with CRC with and without liver metastases, and a collection of plasma from CRC patients with and without response to FOLFOX4/FOLFIRI regimens. We investigated 10 target miRNAs in the tissue of 28 CRC patients and identified miR-125b-5p, miR-17-5p, and miR-185-5p to be associated with liver metastasis. Further, we investigated the three miRNAs at the exosomal level in a plasma collection to test their association with chemotherapy response. Our data suggest that the elevated plasma levels of miR-17-5p and miR-185-5p could be predictive of treatment response. Overexpression of miR-17-5p and underexpression of miR-125b-5p and miR-185-5p in CRC tissue seem to be associated with metastatic potential. On the other hand, an increased expression of miR-125b-5p in plasma exosomes was potentially correlated with a more aggressive CRC phenotype.
微小RNA（miRNA）是一类小的非编码RNA，是结直肠癌（CRC）潜在的生物标志物。该研究假设，与肝转移相关的miRNA在与血浆外泌体相关时，也可能有助于评估治疗反应。在本研究中，我们使用了两组生物样本，一组是从有或无肝转移的CRC患者身上采集的肿瘤组织，另一组是对FOLFOX4/FOLFIRI方案有或无反应的CRC患者的血浆。我们在28例CRC患者的组织中研究了10种靶miRNA，确定miR-125b-5p、miR-17-5p和miR-185-5p与肝转移相关。此外，我们在一组血浆中研究了外泌体水平的这三种miRNA，以测试它们与化疗反应的关联。我们的数据表明，血浆中miR-17-5p和miR-185-5p水平升高可能预示治疗反应。CRC组织中miR-17-5p的过表达以及miR-125b-5p和miR-185-5p的低表达似乎与转移潜能相关。另一方面，血浆外泌体中miR-125b-5p表达增加可能与更具侵袭性的CRC表型相关。
