New biomarkers in peripheral blood of patients with ovarian cancer: high expression levels of miR-16-5p, miR-17-5p, and miR-638

Abstract

Objectives Ovarian cancer is one of the most fatal gynecologic malignities. miR-16-5p, miR-17-5p, and miR-638 genes were found to have been associated with ovarian cancer in accordance with the data obtained from the previous microarray research performed by Tuncer et al. (J Ovarian Res 13(1):99, 2020). The expression levels of these miRNAs in the peripheral blood samples of 142 ovarian cancer patients, and 97 healthy controls were investigated for performing the validation, and to identify whether these genes were the possible biomarkers to be used in the early diagnosis of high-risk ovarian cancer patients, and in the prognosis of patients. Methods The miRNA expression analysis was performed using the miRNA-specific cDNA synthesis, and real-time PCR methods following the RNA isolation from the peripheral blood lymphocytes. Results miR-16-5p, miR-17-5p, and miR-638 miRNA gene expression levels were found to have twofold higher expression levels in patient groups compared with the gene expression levels in healthy controls, and were statistically significant (p < 0.05). In addition, the comparison of the miRNA expression levels with the clinical data of patients showed that there was a significant difference with smoking history and the increased expression level of miR-17-5 (p: 0.007). There was a significant difference between the increased expression level of miR-638 with the locally advanced stage, and abdominal/ pelvic metastatic patients (p: 0.03). Conclusions The obtained data suggest that miR-16-5p, miR-17-5p, and miR-638 molecules might be the noninvasive biomarkers in identifying the ovarian cancer. However, the investigation and monitoring of the changeability of these biomarkers in benign ovarian diseases, and during the treatment must be performed in future studies for identifying the accurate diagnostic, and prognostic features of miRNAs.

Search for New Participants in the Pathogenesis of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer with the Potential to Be Used as Diagnostic Molecules

“…Our data are in good agreement with those of other colleagues who showed increased levels of miR-20a-5p, miR-16-5p and miR-93-5p in serous ovarian cancer tissues compared with the corresponding normal tissues [28,90], upregulated miR-16-5p and miR-17-5p in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with ovarian cancer [91], and upregulated miR-93-5p in the serum of patients with SOC [92]. The overexpression of miR-19a and miR-19b-1, the key oncogenic components of the miR-17-92 cluster, triggers the EMT of lung cancer cells, providing cancer invasion and metastatic dissemination, the resistance of tumor cells to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and apoptosis, associated with poor prognosis of cancer patients [58].…”

Blood Plasma Small Non-Coding RNAs as Diagnostic Molecules for the Progesterone-Receptor-Negative Phenotype of Serous Ovarian Tumors

“…Furthermore, in our study, we found that miR-16-5p, miR-17-5p, miR-20a-5p, and miR-93-5p, responsible for the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of the cell [66][67][68][69][70], were significantly directly correlated with blood serum CA125 concentration and significantly inversely correlated with PGR expression levels in tumor tissue. These elevated levels of miRNAs in tumor tissues and peripheral blood of patients with HGSOC serous ovarian cancer are consistent with literature data showing similar changes in biological samples from patients with serous ovarian tumors [16,[71][72][73][74]. Notably, a sharp significant decrease in PGR mRNA levels was observed in our study in both the LGSOC and HGSOC groups, with a more pronounced drop in the latter.…”

Role of serum microRNAs as biomarkers for endometriosis, endometrioid carcinoma of ovary & endometrioid endometrial cancer

“…In the present study, expression of miR-16 was significantly downregulated in the serum of all the patients as compared to controls. Differential regulation of miR-16 has been previously reported in endometriosis as well as ECO 10 , 18 , 19 which results in upregulation of its target genes such as COX2 and VEGFA known to be important players in inflammation and angiogenesis. ROC curve analysis showed that miR-16 had a diagnostic potential for endometrioid EC with AUC of 0.850 and displayed a sensitivity and specificity of 90 and 73 per cent, respectively, at the cut-off value of 0.835.…”