microRNA在乳腺癌细胞中的功能研究及其作为乳腺癌生物标志物的评估

乳腺癌是一种由于细胞增殖失控而引发的严重危及人类尤其是女性生命的疾病。目前,寻找稳定有效、非侵入性的生物标志物来准确诊断乳腺癌,以及寻求新的治疗乳腺癌的方法显得至关重要。microRNA(miRNA)是一种内源性非编码小RNA,参与细胞内的多种生理过程,部分miRNA可以促进或抑制肿瘤的发生,具有诊断和治疗癌症的潜在价值。本文梳理了在乳腺癌中发挥作用的一些miRNA,并简述了这些miRNA如何参与乳腺癌的发生及发展,评估了其作为乳腺癌生物标志物的可靠性。     

MiRNA与肾上腺皮质癌

miRNA是一类长度约22个核苷酸的非编码小分子RNA,具有调控基因表达的作用,参与多种生物学过程,包括早期发育、细胞增殖、细胞凋亡、细胞分化等,与糖尿病、免疫或神经退行性疾病以及癌症有关。研究发现,miRNA与肾上腺皮质癌关系密切:首先,miRNA可影响肾上腺皮质癌细胞增殖、侵袭及转移;其次,miRNA可作为肾上腺皮质癌早期诊断的重要标志物;最后,miRNA还是判断肾上腺皮质癌疗效及预后的重要指标。本文就miRNA与肾上腺皮质癌发生发展的关系以及miRNA在预后判断和早期诊断中的应用做一综述。     

外泌体miRNA的生物学功能及其在肺纤维化疾病中的调控作用

外泌体是一种微型纳米级细胞外囊泡,由于能够直接参与细胞间信息的传递和物质的运输,被认为是细胞间通讯、免疫调节、疾病诊断和预后循环生物学标志物的重要载体,其携带的核酸和蛋白质等内含物能够影响受体细胞的生理状态.作为一种内源性非编码微小RNA,microRNA (miRNA)对疾病诊断和治疗有着重要的研究价值,有大量证据表明该类分子对肺部疾病的发病进程起着控制调节作用.本文聚焦于近年来细胞外泌体来源miRNA的生物学特性和功能领域,综述了近年来生物医学研究中的热点分子外泌体miRNA在肺部疾病尤其是肺纤维化中调控功能和机制的研究,因此不仅能为肺纤维化疾病的诊断提供新的标志物分子,并且还能够为肺纤维化的外泌体干预治疗建议新的干预策略.     

循环microRNA与肿瘤诊断

miRNA是一类小分子调控RNA,在肿瘤的发生与控制方面发挥着重要的作用.已经发现在肿瘤患者的循环核酸中存在源自肿瘤的miRNA分子,这一现象提示循环miRNA分子可能成为无创诊断癌症的一个有效的方法.本文综述了循环miRNA作为循环生物标志物在肿瘤诊断中的应用,以及该领域的最新研究进展.     

非编码RNA在肿瘤液体活检中的研究进展

液体活检是一种基于分析体液样本中的生物标志物来诊断疾病、监测疾病进展和评估疗效的非侵入性的新型微创诊断技术。液体活检主要包括探查和检测循环肿瘤细胞、ctDNA、非编码RNAs和细胞外囊泡等。非编码RNA之前被认为是一类无功能的RNA,但近年来研究表明它们在肿瘤的发病机制中扮演着重要的角色。它们构成了基因调控的一个重要层面,其表达水平在多种癌种中呈现失调势态,这提示了它们作为肿瘤生物学标志物的临床应用潜力。飞速发展的高通量测序技术使得在泛癌领域建立非编码RNA表达谱的分子表征成为可能。该文系统阐述了非编码RNA作为非侵入性肿瘤标志物的研究进展,评估了其作为肿瘤生物标志物的适用性,同时总结了近期的检测技术突破对肿瘤分子标志物发展的影响。     

血清microRNA——一种非侵入性的肿瘤标志物

microRNA(miRNA)是一类自然形成的非编码小RNA,不少miRNA分子已被证实与癌症的生成有关联。近期的研究发现人血清中稳定存在一定水平的miRNA,并且血清miRNA表达谱的变化与多种肿瘤的发生、发展具有明确的相关性,说明血清miRNA可以作为肿瘤临床诊断和预后评估的分子标志物。因此,特定的血清miRNA表达谱可以构成识别癌症与其他疾病的"指纹",为癌症及其他疾病的诊断提供一种新的非侵入性的检测方法,同时,该技术还可用于肿瘤分类、预后判断、手术疗效监测及疾病复发预测等领域,并可能带来未来临床医学上的变革。     

环状RNA与激素性股骨头坏死发病机制的相关性研究

激素性股骨头坏死(steroid-induced necrosis of the femoral head, SANFH)作为髋关节常见疾病,早期诊断及治疗较为困难,寻找SANFH分子生物标志物对其早期诊断具有重要意义。环状RNA (circular RNA, circRNA)是一类闭合环状非编码RNA (non-coding RNA, ncRNA),可通过海绵吸附微RNA (microRNA, miRNA)、结合RNA结合蛋白(RNA-binding protein, RBP)、直接翻译蛋白质、调控基因表达等方式参与众多疾病的发生发展,是机体重要的调控因子。近年来,诸多研究基于circRNA探讨SANFH发病机制。本文就circRNA的生物学特征、功能,以及其在作为SANFH发病机制的血管微循环障碍、脂代谢紊乱、骨代谢异常中的调控作用进行综述,探讨circRNA作为早期诊断SANFH生物标志物的可能性。     

综述: 人体体液中细胞外microRNA的起源、功能及潜在诊疗价值

最近大量的研究表明micro RNAs(miRNAs)是一类重要的调控因子．曾经被认为是非常不稳定的RNA分子——miRNA,却可以稳定存在于血液和其他体液中．更加重要的是,细胞外miRNAs被发现和多种疾病密切相关,它们可以作为诸如肿瘤等各种疾病的非侵入性生物标志物．然而,目前关于细胞外miRNA的来源以及生物学功能还不甚清楚．本文将总结最近细胞外miRNA的研究进展,并将重点介绍细胞外miRNA在疾病诊断及治疗中的作用．     

环状RNA在慢性病发病中作用机制的研究进展

环状RNA作为一种对基因表达进行精细调节的重要非编码RNA,不仅增加了非编码RNA介导的基因调控网络的复杂度,也加深了疾病发病机制研究的深度。虽然近年来环状RNA的功能研究有了长足的进步,确定了其作为ceRNA能够特异性吸附miRNA,解除相应miRNA对下游靶mRNA的抑制作用,此类研究也表明核外环状RNA介导的凋亡活化,增殖抑制和细胞与细胞间的交流在疾病发生发展过程中是至关重要的,但我们对环状RNA的了解还只是冰山一角,特别是病理状态下其作用的具体机制仍然需要我们不断探索。在此,本综述的主要目的是回顾目前关于环状RNA在心血管疾病、中枢神经系统疾病和癌症等慢性病领域的研究,探讨以上慢性病发病过程中环状RNA所起的作用以及展望未来环状RNA在疾病发病机制领域的研究。     

微小RNA分析技术研究进展

微小RNA（miRNA）是一类起重要调控作用的非编码小分子RNA。准确分析组织或细胞中miRNA的表达水平是研究其生物学功能的基础。近年,研究者开发出多种方法检测不同生理、病理过程中miRNA的差异表达,发现miRNA的异常表达与癌症等多种疾病密切相关。目前,miRNA已逐渐成为重要的疾病诊断生物标志物乃至治疗靶点。miRNA的分析技术贯穿miRNA的研究和药物研发过程,并起到关键作用。我们针对miRNA的不同研究阶段所采用的定性和定量分析方法,着重阐述了用于初始miRNA研究的克隆测序类技术、分析miRNA表达谱的高通量芯片技术、研究具体目标miRNA及其前体表达的qPCR和改良Northern印迹技术,以及将修饰后miRNA作为药物的药代动力学评价技术。     

miR-9: From function to therapeutic potential in cancer

Malignant neoplasms are regarded as the main cause of death around the world; hence, many research studies were conducted to further perceive molecular mechanisms, treatment, and cancer prognosis. Cancer is known as a major factor for health-related problems in the world. The main challenges associated with these diseases are prompt diagnosis, disease remission classification and treatment status forecast. Therefore, progressing in such areas by developing new and optimized methods with the help of minimally invasive biological markers such as circular microRNAs (miRNAs) can be considered important. miRNA interactions with target genes have specified their role in development, apoptosis, differentiation, and proliferation and also, confirm direct miRNA function in cancer. Different miRNAs expression levels in various types of malignant neoplasms have been observed to be associated with prognosis of various carcinomas. miR-9 seems to implement opposite practices in different tissues or under various cancer incidences by influencing different genes. Aberrant miR-9 levels have been observed in many cancer types. Therefore, we intended to investigate the precise role of miR-9 in patients with malignant neoplasms. To this end, in this study, we attempted to examine different studies to clarify the overall role of miR-9 as a prognostic marker in several human tumors. The presented data in this study can help us to find the novel therapeutic avenues for treatment of human cancers.     

Recommendations for extracellular vesicle miRNA biomarker research in the endometrial cancer context

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynaecological malignancy in the developed world, and concerningly incidence is rising, particularly in younger people. Therefore, there is increased interest in novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-bound particles present in bodily fluids that have the potential to facilitate non-invasive, early diagnosis of EC and could aid with monitoring of recurrence and treatment response. EV cargo provides molecular insight into the tumor, with the lipid bilayer providing stability for RNA species usually prone to degradation. miRNAs have recently become a focus for EV biomarker research due to their ability to regulate cancer related pathways and influence cancer development and progression. This review evaluates the current literature on EV miRNA biomarkers with a focus on EC, and discusses the challenges facing this research. This review finally highlights areas of focus for EV miRNA biomarker research going forward, such as standardization of normalization approaches, sample storage and processing, extensive reporting of methodologies and moving away from single miRNA biomarkers.     

循环miRNA 表达谱在肺癌早期诊断、判断预后和指导化疗中的应用

MicroRNA(miRNA)是一种高保守,长度大概21-23个核苷酸,非蛋白编码RNA,起着调节基因表达的作用。近年来有关miRNA与肺癌的关系已经得到证实,并且成为当前研究的热点。miRNA能整体调节基因表达,这使得miRNA表达谱在作为生物信号方面比蛋白编码基因更具有提示作用。最近发现miRNA以被保护的状态存在于循环血液中,这使得miRNA表达的发现具有非侵袭性、重现性以及易检测性。研究显示血浆miRNA表达谱可作为肺癌生物信号分子,在肺癌早期诊断、判断预后和指导化疗药物应用等方面具有重要作用。本文将对血浆miRNA与肺癌的研究进展,以及在肺癌早期诊断、判断预后和指导化疗药物应用等方面作一综述。     

Current and Future Perspectives of Cell-Free DNA in Liquid Biopsy

A liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive or non-invasive method to analyze a range of tumor material in blood or other body fluids, including circulating tumor cells (CTCs), cell-free DNA (cfDNA), messenger RNA (mRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and exosomes, which is a very promising technology. Among these cancer biomarkers, plasma cfDNA is the most widely used in clinical practice. Compared with a tissue biopsy of traditional cancer diagnosis, in assessing tumor heterogeneity, a liquid biopsy is more reliable because all tumor sites release cfDNA into the blood. Therefore, a cfDNA liquid biopsy is less invasive and comprehensive. Moreover, the development of next-generation sequencing technology makes cfDNA sequencing more sensitive than a tissue biopsy, with higher clinical applicability and wider application. In this publication, we aim to review the latest perspectives of cfDNA liquid biopsy clinical significance and application in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. We introduce the sequencing techniques and challenges of cfDNA detection, analysis, and clinical applications, and discuss future research directions.     

A pilot study of circulating miRNAs as potential biomarkers of early stage breast cancer

Background

To date, there are no highly sensitive and specific minimally invasive biomarkers for detection of breast cancer at an early stage. The occurrence of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in blood components (including serum and plasma) has been repeatedly observed in cancer patients as well as healthy controls. Because of the significance of miRNA in carcinogenesis, circulating miRNAs in blood may be unique biomarkers for early and minimally invasive diagnosis of human cancers. The objective of this pilot study was to discover a panel of circulating miRNAs as potential novel breast cancer biomarkers.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using microarray-based expression profiling followed by Real-Time quantitative Polymerase Cycle Reaction (RT-qPCR) validation, we compared the levels of circulating miRNAs in plasma samples from 20 women with early stage breast cancer (10 Caucasian American (CA) and 10 African American (AA)) and 20 matched healthy controls (10 CAs and 10 AAs). Using the significance level of p<0.05 constrained by at least two-fold expression change as selection criteria, we found that 31 miRNAs were differentially expressed in CA study subjects (17 up and 14 down) and 18 miRNAs were differentially expressed in AA study subjects (9 up and 9 down). Interestingly, only 2 differentially expressed miRNAs overlapped between CA and AA study subjects. Using receiver operational curve (ROC) analysis, we show that not only up-regulated but also down-regulated miRNAs can discriminate patients with breast cancer from healthy controls with reasonable sensitivity and specificity. To further explore the potential roles of these circulating miRNAs in breast carcinogenesis, we applied pathway-based bioinformatics exploratory analysis and predicted a number of significantly enriched pathways which are predicted to be regulated by these circulating miRNAs, most of which are involved in critical cell functions, cancer development and progression.

Conclusions

Our observations from this pilot study suggest that the altered levels of circulating miRNAs might have great potential to serve as novel, noninvasive biomarkers for early detection of breast cancer.     

Circulating cell‐free microRNAs in cutaneous melanoma staging and recurrence or survival prognosis

Cutaneous melanoma is a skin cancer with increasing incidence. Identification of novel clinical biomarkers able to detect the stage of disease and suggest prognosis could improve treatment and outcome for melanoma patients. Cell‐free microRNAs (cf‐miRNAs) are the circulating copies of short non‐coding RNAs involved in gene expression regulation. They are released into the interstitial fluid, are detectable in blood and other body fluids and have interesting features of ideal biomarker candidates. They are stable outside the cell, tissue specific, vary along with cancer development and are sensitive to change in the disease course such as progression or therapeutic response. Moreover, they are accessible by non‐invasive methods or venipuncture. Some articles have reported different cf‐miRNAs with the potential of diagnostic tools for melanoma staging, recurrence and survival prediction. Although some concordance of results is already emerging, differences in analytical methods, normalization strategies and tumour staging still will require further research and standardization prior to clinical usage of cf‐miRNA analysis. This article reviews this literature with the aim of contributing to a shared focusing on these new promising tools for melanoma treatment and care.     

Serum microRNA expression profile as a biomarker for the diagnosis of pertussis

Pertussis is a highly contagious, respiratory disease associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. A rapid and reliable diagnostic method is essential for appropriate treatment and prevention. Expression profiles of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have been proven as new non-invasive biomarkers for infectious diseases. We aimed to investigated the serum miRNA profile in pertussis patients and explored its potential as a novel diagnostic biomarker for pertussis. Among 664 different miRNAs analyzed using a miRNA array, 50 were overexpressed and 81 were underexpressed in the serum of pertussis patients. Expression levels of seven candidate miRNAs were further evaluated by real-time qRT-PCR. A panel of five miRNAs (miR-202, miR-342-5p, miR-206, miR-487b, miR-576-5p) was confirmed overexpressed in pertussis patients (p < 0.05). Risk score and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the area under the curve of the five-member miRNA profile was 0.980. At an optimal cutoff value (0.707), this panel of miRNAs yielded a sensitivity of 97.4 % and a specificity of 94.3 %. These data suggest that the five-member serum miRNA profile may serve as a new biomarker for pertussis diagnosis with high specificity and sensitivity.