Urine miRNA signature as a potential non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in cervical cancer

Abstract

MicroRNAs as cancer biomarkers in serum, plasma, and other body fluids are often used but analysis of miRNA in urine is limited. We investigated the expression of selected miRNAs in the paired urine, serum, cervical scrape, and tumor tissue specimens from the women with cervical precancer and cancer with a view to identify if urine miRNAs could be used as reliable non-invasive biomarkers for an early diagnosis and prognosis of cervical cancer. Expression of three oncomiRs (miR-21, miR-199a, and miR-155-5p) and three tumor suppressors (miR-34a, miR-145, and miR-218) as selected by database search in cervical pre-cancer, cancer, and normal controls including cervical cancer cell lines were analyzed using qRT-PCR. The expression of miRNAs was correlated with various clinicopathological parameters, including HPV infection and survival outcome. We observed a significant overexpression of the oncomiRs and the downregulation of tumor suppressor miRNAs. A combination of miR-145-5p, miR-218-5p, and miR-34a-5p in urine yielded 100% sensitivity and 92.8% specificity in distinguishing precancer and cancer patients from healthy controls and it well correlates with those of serum and tumor tissues. The expression of miR-34a-5p and miR-218-5p were found to be independent prognostic factors for the overall survival of cervical cancer patients. We conclude that the evaluation of the above specific miRNA expression in non-invasive urine samples may serve as a reliable biomarker for early detection and prognosis of cervical cancer.

Antiproliferative and apoptotic potential of Glycyrrhizin against HPV16+ Caski cervical cancer cells: A plausible association with downreguation of HPV E6 and E7 oncogenes and Notch signaling pathway

“…Intriguingly, it is estimated that 85% of cumulative CCa cases are reported from the underdeveloped economies of the world, where it is responsible for approximately 12% of altogether female cancers. Among various others, infection of HPV is a ubiquitous risk factor which is related with CCa in approximately 90% of all diagnosed cases ( Aftab et al, 2021 ). Nevertheless, the occurrence of CCa is multifactorial as it develop in a minority of women affected with HPV16 and HPV18 (high-risk CCa associated HPV strains) ( Zur Hausen, 1996 ).…”

miR-3065-3p promotes stemness and metastasis by targeting CRLF1 in colorectal cancer

“…Increasing evidence has revealed that miRNAs are key molecules that regulate CSCs during tumor progression [ 11 – 13 ]. Circulating miRNAs have the potential to serve as diagnostic markers of tumor progression and this has been the focus of an increasing number of studies [ 14 , 15 ]. For example, serum exosomal miR-1247-3p levels in patients with primary hepatic cancer are associated with the extent of lung metastasis [ 16 ].…”

Performance of Nomogram Prediction Combining MiRNAs in Cervical Mucus, HPV Genotype and Age for Cervical Cancer and its Precursor Lesions

“…Here we added miR-155-5p because its fold-difference was also high, especially for SCC (10-fold). At least because this score was higher than miR-20b-5p (4-fold) 15 , this was also the reason that miR-155-5p had been selected as a candidate biomarker for cervical cancer screening by others [16][17][18] . We had estimated the accuracy of screening with 4 miRNAs separately, but combining candidate miRNAs offers the possibility of further increasing accuracy 13,19 .…”