Abstract
Background: MicroRNAs are tiny non-coding small endogenous RNAs that regulate gene expression by translational repression, mRNA cleavage and mRNA inhibition. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypermethylation of miR-34b/c and miR-148a in colorectal cancer, and correlate this data to clinicopathological features. We also aimed to evaluate the hypermethylation of miR-34b/c in faeces specimens as a novel non-invasive faecal-DNA-based screening marker.Methods: The 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine treatment and methylation-specific PCR were carried out to detect the hypermethylation of miR-34b/c and miR-148a. Results: The miR-34b/c hypermethylation was found in 97.5% (79 out of 82) of primary colorectal tumours, P0.0110. In 75% (21 out of 28) of faecal specimens we found a hypermethylation of miR-34b/c while only in 16% (2 out of 12) of high-grade dysplasia. In addition, miR-148a was found to be hypermethylated in 65% (51 out of 78) of colorectal tumour tissues with no significant correlation to clinicopathological features. However, a trend with female gender and advanced age was found, P0.083. We also observed a trend to lower survival rate in patients with miR-148a hypermethylation with 10-year survival probability: 48 vs 65%, P0.561.Conclusions:These findings show that aberrant hypermethylation of miR-34b/c could be an ideal class of early screening marker, whereas miR-148a could serve as a disease progression follow-up marker.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1770-1778 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | British Journal of Cancer |
Volume | 104 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 24 2011 |
Keywords
- CRC
- faeces
- methylation
- miR-148a
- miR-34b/c
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cancer Research
- Oncology