Title:Circulating microRNAs as Potential Diagnostic, Prognostic and Therapeutic Targets in Pancreatic Cancer
Volume: 22
Issue: 42
Author(s): Safieh Ebrahimi, Mina Hosseini, Faezeh Ghasemi, Soodabeh Shahidsales, Mina Maftouh, Hamed Akbarzade, Seyed Ali Reza Parizadeh, Seyed Mahdi Hassanian and Amir Avan
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, MicroRNA, diagnostic biomarkers.
Abstract: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive malignancy with a very poor prognosis,
and excessive resistance to chemotherapy. MicroRNAs have been shown to play important roles in PDAC oncogenesis
as they can act as both oncogenes and tumor suppressor molecules. Altered expression of specific microRNAs
in PDAC has diagnostic and prognostic implications. There is growing body of evidence showing the
important role of miR-486-5p and miR-938 for discrimination of PDAC patients from healthy subjects and those
with chronic pancreatitis. Additionally the diagnostic features of miR-486-5p were comparable with CA 19-9 for
the detection of PDAC patients, suggesting its diagnostic value as a blood-based miRNA in PDAC, although
further investigations are warranted for validation of this marker. In addition to these applications, several studies
have suggested therapeutic potential of some miRNAs in PDAC. In particular, modulations of let-7, miR-29a,
miR-17-5p, miR-365, miR-181b, miR-21, miR-221 and miR-96 are reported to be associated with tumor response.
Moreover, enforced expression of miR-17-92 inhibits tumourigenicity and increased chemoresistance in
PDAC cancer stem cells via TGF-β1 pathway, while overexpression of miR-96 suppresses cell proliferation,
migration, and invasion in a manner associated with KRAS downregulation. In this review we attempt to give an
overview about recent preclinical and clinical studies that have addressed the potential use of circulating microRNAs
as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, their use as therapeutic targets and finally, we discuss the
possible role of microRNAs in PDAC chemoresistance.