Combination of circulating miR-145-5p/miR-191-5p as biomarker for breast cancer detection

Yeldar Ashirbekov; Arman Abaildayev; Nazgul Omarbayeva; Dauren Botbayev; Ayaz Belkozhayev; Anel Askandirova; Alena Neupokoyeva; Gulzhakhan Utegenova; Kamalidin Sharipov; Nagima Aitkhozhina

doi:10.7717/peerj.10494

Combination of circulating miR-145-5p/miR-191-5p as biomarker for breast cancer detection

PeerJ. 2020 Dec 16:8:e10494. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10494. eCollection 2020.

Affiliations

¹ M. Aitkhozhin Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
² Kazakh Research Institute of Oncology and Radiology, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
³ Almaty Branch of National Center for Biotechnology, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
⁴ South Kazakhstan State Pedagogical University, Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women worldwide. At present, there is a need to search for new, accurate, reliable, minimally invasive and cheap biomarkers in addition to existing methods for the diagnosis and prognosis of BC. The main goal of this study was to test the diagnostic value of six circulating miRNAs in Kazakh women.

Materials and methods: TaqMan-based miRNA profiling was conducted using plasma specimens from 35 BC women patients and 33 healthy women samples (control group).

Results: The level of all seven miRNAs (including endogenous control) normalized by synthetic cel-miR-39 were significantly elevated in the group of BC patients. Normalization using miR-222-3p as endogenous control reduced differences in level of miRNAs between groups; as a result, only three miRNAs were significantly upregulated in the group of BC patients-miR-145-5p (P = 6.5e-12), miR-191-5p (P = 3.7e-10) and miR-21-5p (P = 0.0034). Moreover, ROC analysis showed that the use of miR-145-5p and miR-191-5p, both individually (AUC = 0.931 and 0.904, respectively) or in combination (AUC = 0.984), allows to accurately differentiate BC patients from healthy individuals.

Conclusions: Two plasma miRNAs-miR-145-5p and miR-191-5p-are potential biomarkers for diagnosis of BC in the Kazakh population. The findings need to be further substantiated using a more representative sample.

Keywords: Biomarker; Breast cancer; Circulating miRNA; Diagnosis; Kazakh population; Plasma; miR-145; miR-191; miR-21.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP05132207). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.