Circulating miR-21-5p and miR-148a-3p as emerging non-invasive biomarkers in thymic epithelial tumors

Abstract

Thymic epithelial cells give rise to both thymoma and thymic carcinoma. A crucial advance in thymic epithelial tumors (TET) management may derive from the identification of novel molecular biomarkers able to improve diagnosis, prognosis and treatment planning.In a previous study, we identified microRNAs that were differentially expressed in tumor vs normal thymic tissues. Among the microRNAs resulted upregulated in TET tissues, we evaluated miR-21-5p, miR-148a-3p, miR-141-3p, miR-34b-5p, miR-34c-5p, miR-455-5p as blood plasma circulating non-invasive biomarkers for TET management.We firstly report that the expression levels of specific onco-miRNAs, that we found upregulated in the blood plasma collected from TET patients at surgery, resulted significantly reduced in follow-up samples.This pilot study suggests that circulating miR-21-5p and miR-148a-3p could represent novel non-invasive biomarkers to evaluate the efficacy of therapy and the prognosis of TET.

MicroRNA‑21‑5p induces the metastatic phenotype of human cervical carcinoma cells in vitro by targeting the von Hippel‑Lindau tumor suppressor

“…This suggests that miR-21-5p may be associated with the progression of CC malignancy. The results were corroborated by previous studies, which produced similar results (3,(9)(10)(11)(12). Notably, it was identified that miR-21-5p stimulates the proliferation and migration of CC cells through inhibition of the PTEN pathway (3).…”

“…A prior study demonstrated the association of miR-21-5p overexpression with tongue cancer cell chemo-resistance via cell adhesion molecule 1 targeting (9). miR-21-5p overexpression has also been identified as a possible predictor of tumor regression following chemoradiotherapy in patients with rectal cancer (10), and as a biomarker of recurrence in young patients with gastric cancer (11) and thymic epithelial tumors (12). It has been reported that the competing endogenous regulation of miR-21-5p by the long non-coding RNA maternally expressed 3 inhibits CC cell proliferation and apoptosis (13).…”

Thymic Epithelial Tumors as a Model of Networking: Development of a Synergistic Strategy for Clinical and Translational Research Purposes

“…Subsequently, in a pilot study carried out on the egfr microsatellite CA-SSR-1 performed by the first genetic analyzer available in pathology, Thermo Fisher's 3130 genetic analyzer, we were able to show that CA-SSR-1 allelic imbalance with short allele relative prevalence significantly correlated with EGFR 3+ immunohistochemical scores, increased egfr gene copy numbers, and advanced stage with relapsing/metastatic behavior in thymomas (44). More recently, we have established further collaborations with other in-house research units (43) and national (19,42,54) and international institutes (55,56). Thanks to frequent participation in meetings and interfacing with members of the scientific community at major conferences on thymic tumors, as well as holding structured workgroups supported by the scientific society ITMIG, our boundaries have changed and widened.…”

MiR-148a-3p suppresses cell proliferation, migration and invasion by targeting PIK3CA in human osteosarcoma cells

“…Overexpression of miR-148a-3p reduced proliferation and induced apoptosis in OS cells [25]; miR-148a-3p is frequently downregulated and miR-148a-3p inhibits cell proliferation and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) by regulating ERBB3/ AKT2/c-myc and ERBB3/AKT2/Snail signaling in bladder cancer [26]; miR-148a-3p reduced cell migration, invasion and proliferation by targeting DNA methyltransferase enzyme (DNMT1) and runt-related transcription factor 3 (RUNX3) in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) [27,28]; circling miR-148a-3p has been reported to serve as tumor biomarker [29][30][31]. However, the roles of miR148a-3p in OS has not been reported.…”