Systematic review of circulating MICRORNAS as biomarkers of cervical carcinogenesis

Abstract

Background Cervical cancer is a preventable disease, but it is a major public health problem despite having a good prognosis when diagnosed early. Although the Pap smear has led to huge drops in rates of cervical cancer and death from the disease, it has some limitations, making new approaches necessary for early diagnosis and biomarkers discovery. MiRNAs have been considered a new class of non-invasive biomarkers and may have great clinical value for screening early-stage cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Well-designed studies have emerged as a necessary strategy for the identification of miRNAs that could be used safely and reliably for a differential diagnosis. This review aims to provide an up-to-date perspective on the assessment of circulating miRNA expression from precursor lesions to cervical cancer, identifying circulating miRNAs or specific miRNA signatures that can be used as potential biomarkers of different stages of cervical carcinogenesis. Methods A systematic review was performed and searches were conducted in the PubMed, LILACS, and Scopus electronic databases. Results Most studies involved Chinese ethnic women and searched for circulating miRNAs in serum samples. Thirty three microRNAs were evaluated in the eligible studies and 17 (miR-196a, miR-16-2, miR-497, miR-1290, miR-425-5p, hsa-miR- 92a, miR-1266, miR-9, miR-192, miR-205, miR-21, miR-152, miR-15b, miR-34a, miR-218, miR-199a-5p and miR-155-5p) showed up-regulation in women with precursor lesion and cervical cancer and 16 microRNAs showed decreased expression in these same groups of women compared to healthy controls (miR-195, miR-2861, miR-145, miR-214, miR-34a, miR-200a, let-7d-3p, miR-30d-5p, miR-638, miR-203a-3p, miR-1914-5p, miR-521, miR-125b, miR-370, miR-218 and miR-100). Conclusion Therefore, defining promising circulating miRNAs or specific miRNA signatures of biological fluid samples can be useful for the screening, diagnosis, prognosis and clinical monitoring of women undergoing cervical carcinogenesis, but greater standardization of studies seems to be necessary for greater consolidation of information.

Role of noncoding RNAs with emphasis on long noncoding RNAs as cervical cancer biomarkers

“…Circulating microRNAs in serum, plasma, and urine are stable and can be used as specific miRNA biomarkers in preinvasive cervical lesions and invasive cervical cancers 33 . However, published studies are highly heterogeneous, and there are no validated quantitative assays.…”

“…18 Circulating microRNAs in serum, plasma, and urine are stable and can be used as specific miRNA biomarkers in preinvasive cervical lesions and invasive cervical cancers. 33 However, published studies are highly heterogeneous, and there are no validated quantitative assays. The dysregulation of specific microRNAs must be evaluated in a large number of invasive and noninvasive samples from different parts of the world.…”

Cancer-Specific miRNAs Extracted from Tissue-Exudative Extracellular Vesicles in Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma

“…They are released by cancer cells and detectable in all human biofluids, including plasma, serum, and urine. Many cancer-specific circulating miRNAs have been reported and are expected to serve as viable biomarkers for the early detection of various cancers [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

miR‐203a—A multifaceted regulator modulating cancer hallmarks and therapy response

“…92 The downregulation of circulating miR-203a-5p in cervical cancer (CC) has diagnostic potential. 87 Further in NSCLC, miR-203a-3p downregulation was linked to TNM stage and poor prognosis. 61 Nowadays, circulating miRNAs serve as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers for several solid cancers, which are difficult to detect in the early stage.…”