Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal, India.
Department of Gastroenterology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh 160012, India.
Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2024 Aug 1;25(8):2797-2804. doi: 10.31557/APJCP.2024.25.8.2797.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the world. Early detection would be greatly enhanced if accurate and cost-effective diagnostic biomarkers for CRC were accessible. The development of blood tests would evidently lower the screening cost of CRC detection. The aim of the present study was to examine the prospective of plasma miRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers for CRC screening.
The expressions of miR-21 and miR-145 in the plasma of colorectal adenocarcinomas and normal healthy controls were quantified by using TaqMan miRNA assays. MiRNA expression levels were also correlated with commonly used clinicopathological features of CRC.
Out of 30 CRC patients, 19 were male and 11 were female. The Mean age of patients was 51.3 ±14.6 years. A statistically significant increase in expression of miR-21 was observed in CRC patients' as compared to healthy controls (p<0.001). A significant association between miR-21 expression and age group (p=0.002) was noticed. Also, a statistically significant difference (p=0.015) between miR-21 expression and tumor location in the proximal and distal sites of the colon was observed in CRC patients. Further, a statistically significant downregulation of miR-145 expression was observed in the plasma of CRC patients as compared to healthy controls (p<0.05). This is the first study to report a significant association between miR-21 expression, age group, and tumor location in CRC patients.
The present study thus emphasises that the appraisal of miR-21 and miR-145 plasma levels may serve as a promising non-invasive screening tool for the early detection of colorectal cancer.
结直肠癌（CRC）是世界上最常见的癌症之一。如果能够获得准确且具有成本效益的 CRC 诊断生物标志物，将极大地提高早期检测的效果。血液检测的发展显然会降低 CRC 检测的筛查成本。本研究旨在探讨血浆 miRNAs 作为 CRC 筛查非侵入性生物标志物的潜力。
使用 TaqMan miRNA 分析检测结直肠腺癌患者和健康对照组血浆中 miR-21 和 miR-145 的表达。还将 miRNA 表达水平与 CRC 的常用临床病理特征相关联。
30 例 CRC 患者中，男性 19 例，女性 11 例。患者的平均年龄为 51.3±14.6 岁。与健康对照组相比，CRC 患者的 miR-21 表达显著增加（p<0.001）。miR-21 表达与年龄组之间存在显著相关性（p=0.002）。此外，还观察到 miR-21 表达与肿瘤在结肠近端和远端位置之间存在统计学显著差异（p=0.015）。进一步，与健康对照组相比，CRC 患者的血浆中 miR-145 表达显著下调（p<0.05）。这是第一项报道 miR-21 表达、年龄组和 CRC 患者肿瘤位置之间存在显著相关性的研究。
因此，本研究强调了评估 miR-21 和 miR-145 血浆水平可能作为 CRC 早期检测的有前途的非侵入性筛查工具。
