Circulating microRNAs as Promising Biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Despite numerous advances in therapeutic approaches, this cancer has a poor prognosis when it is diagnosed at late stages. Therefore, the scientific effort is nowadays directed towards the development of new non-invasive and dynamic biomarkers to improve the survival expectancy of CRC patients. In this sense, deregulated expression of many miRNAs has been shown to play an important role for CRC carcinogenesis and dissemination. Noticeably, an increasing number of studies highlight that circulating miRNAs, including those traveling inside exosomes or those released by tumor cells into circulation, constitute a promising tool for early detection, prognosis and therapy selection of CRC. Therefore, in this review we focus on the clinical potential of blood circulating miRNAs as emerging biomarkers with high value to improve the clinical management of CRC patients, providing a deep and complete perspective of the realities and challenges to translate these biomarkers to the clinical context.

Tumor-Derived Exosomes in Immunosuppression and Immunotherapy

“…miRNAs, including those traveling inside exosomes or those released by tumor cells into the circulation, may serve as promising biomarkers in colorectal cancer [33]. It was shown that serum exosomal miR-320d is a promising noninvasive diagnostic biomarker for distinguishing metastatic from nonmetastatic colorectal cancer [34].…”

Investigating potential molecular mechanisms of serum exosomal miRNAs in colorectal cancer based on bioinformatics analysis

“…Recent studies revealed serum exosomal miRNAs may play a critical role in cancer development and progression. [ 15 , 23 – 25 ] Bioinformatics data-mining approach based on publicly available databases is a useful tool to reveal potential mechanisms and signaling pathways in various cancers. [ 26 – 28 ] In the present research, DEmiRNAs were identified based on GEO databases and their target genes were predicted by multiple target predicting programs.…”

Perspectives of the Application of Liquid Biopsy in Colorectal Cancer

“…Although the application of liquid biopsy in oncology has emerged and developed at an incredible speed, the information extracted from ctDNA and CTCs still cannot fully meet the requirements of tumor management, so expanding the range of analytes examined is expected to help liquid biopsy reach its potential in clinical application. Biomarkers such as ctRNA and platelets while patients are undergoing tumor therapy are also candidates for fluid biopsy [119][120][121][122][123][124][125], while exosomal miRNAs may have the potential to make more contributions to the development of this field in the near future.…”