Blood miRNAs miR-549a, miR-552, and miR-592 serve as potential disease-specific panels to diagnose colorectal cancer

Soroush Akbar; Samaneh Mashreghi; Mohammad Reza Kalani; Akram Valanik; Farzaneh Ahmadi; Mahdi Aalikhani; Zahra Bazi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28492

Blood miRNAs miR-549a, miR-552, and miR-592 serve as potential disease-specific panels to diagnose colorectal cancer

Heliyon. 2024 Mar 24;10(7):e28492. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28492. eCollection 2024 Apr 15.

Authors

Soroush Akbar¹, Samaneh Mashreghi², Mohammad Reza Kalani³, Akram Valanik², Farzaneh Ahmadi⁴, Mahdi Aalikhani⁵, Zahra Bazi^{2

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Affiliations

¹ Metabolic Disorders Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.
² Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Medical Technologies, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.
³ Enterprise-TTM, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, USA.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
⁵ Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran.
⁶ Cancer Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: miRNAs originating from colorectal cancer (CRC) tissue receive significant focus in the early diagnosis of CRC due to their stability in body fluids. However, if these miRNAs originated from alternative organs, their prognostic value will diminish. Thus, in this study, we aim to identify disease-specific miRNAs for colorectal cancer (CRC) by employing bioinformatics and experimental methodologies.

Method: To identify CRC-specific miRNAs, we retrieved miRNA profiles of CRC and normal tissues from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Subsequently, computational strategies were utilized to select potential candidate miRNAs. Following this, the expression levels of the potent miRNAs were assessed through RT-qPCR in both CRC tissue and serum samples from patients (N = 46), as well as healthy individuals (N = 46). Additionally, the associations between clinicopathological characteristics, survival outcomes, and diagnostic accuracy were evaluated.

Results: A total of 8893 RNA-seq expression data were acquired from TCGA, comprising 8250 data from 19 distinct cancer types and 643 corresponding healthy samples. Based on the computational methodology, miR-549a, miR-552, and miR-592 were identified as the principal expressed miRNAs in colorectal cancer (CRC). Within these miRNAs, miR-552 displayed a substantial association with tumors at the N and T stages. miR-549a and miR-592 were observed to be linked exclusively to the invasion of tumor depth and tumor stage (TNM), respectively. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis conducted on the miRNA expression in serum samples revealed that all miRNAs exhibited an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of up to 0.86, thereby indicating their high diagnostic accuracy.

Conclusion: Considering the strong associations of these three identified miRNAs with CRC, they can collectively serve as a panel for specific discrimination of CRC from other types of cancer within the body. Although this study focused solely on CRC, this approach can potentially be applied to other cancer types as well.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; RNA sequencing; miRNAs.