A microRNA signature defines chemoresistance in ovarian cancer through modulation of angiogenesis

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jun 11;110(24):9845-50. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1305472110. Epub 2013 May 22.

Abstract

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy; it is highly aggressive and causes almost 125,000 deaths yearly. Despite advances in detection and cytotoxic therapies, a low percentage of patients with advanced stage disease survive 5 y after the initial diagnosis. The high mortality of this disease is mainly caused by resistance to the available therapies. Here, we profiled microRNA (miR) expression in serous epithelial ovarian carcinomas to assess the possibility of a miR signature associated with chemoresistance. We analyzed tumor samples from 198 patients (86 patients as a training set and 112 patients as a validation set) for human miRs. A signature of 23 miRs associated with chemoresistance was generated by array analysis in the training set. Quantitative RT-PCR in the validation set confirmed that three miRs (miR-484, -642, and -217) were able to predict chemoresistance of these tumors. Additional analysis of miR-484 revealed that the sensitive phenotype is caused by a modulation of tumor vasculature through the regulation of the VEGFB and VEGFR2 pathways. We present compelling evidence that three miRs can classify the response to chemotherapy of ovarian cancer patients in a large multicenter cohort and that one of these three miRs is involved in the control of tumor angiogenesis, indicating an option in the treatment of these patients. Our results suggest, in fact, that blockage of VEGF through the use of an anti-VEGFA antibody may not be sufficient to improve survival in ovarian cancer patients unless VEGFB signaling is also blocked.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology
  • Blotting, Western
  • Carboplatin / pharmacology
  • Carcinoma, Ovarian Epithelial
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Coculture Techniques
  • Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous / blood supply
  • Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous / genetics
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / genetics*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells / metabolism
  • Humans
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / blood supply
  • Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / genetics
  • Neovascularization, Pathologic / genetics*
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Ovarian Neoplasms / blood supply
  • Ovarian Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Paclitaxel / pharmacology
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Signal Transduction / genetics
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor B / genetics
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor B / metabolism
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2 / genetics
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2 / metabolism

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • MIRN217 microRNA, human
  • MIRN484 microRNA, human
  • MIRN642 microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs
  • VEGFB protein, human
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor B
  • Carboplatin
  • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2
  • Paclitaxel

Associated data

  • GEO/GSE43867