MicroRNA expression profiles in supraglottic carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded RNA molecules which regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and several miRNAs have been found to be associated with some types of cancer. We sought to identify the expression and involvement of miRNAs in supraglottic carcinoma tissues compared with normal tissues and to determine whether miRNA expression is predictive of disease. Unsupervised clustering shows that miRNA profiles can distinguish tumor from normal tissues. Analysis of miRNA contents in supraglottic carcinoma highlighted nineteen differentially expressed miRNAs, three upregulated miRNAs (miR-21, miR-19a, miR-33a) and two downregulated miRNAs (miR-206, miR-375). The microarray results of supraglottic carcinoma and related computer analysis may be beneficial for further analysis of cancer diagnosis and therapy. IntroductionLaryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is a very common malignant neoplasm of the head and neck. One of the key challenges in the treatment of LSCC is the management of metastasis to locoregional lymph nodes. Lymph node metastasis is common in supraglottic carcinoma and is the main cause of mortality for these patients. It has been reported that the incidence of lymph node metastasis may be as high as 25-50% in supraglottic carcinoma (1). Current treatments, including surgical intervention, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, have a moderate effect on early-stage cases, but are less effective in more advanced cases. Five-year overall survival for supraglottic cancer remains poor (2,3). Therefore, understanding the molecular pathways of carcinogenesis or progression is key to improving diagnosis, therapy and prevention of supraglottic carcinoma. microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non-coding RNAs that are endogenously expressed in animal and plant cells. They regulate the expression of protein-coding genes at the translational level. One strand of the mature double-stranded miRNA is incorporated into the RNA-induced silencing complex, which downregulates target mRNAs either by degradation or by translational inhibition (4). miRNAs play important roles in normal regulation of gene expression for developmental timing, cell proliferation and apoptosis. Moreover, altered miRNA expression is implicated in cancer. Recently, miRNA genes were implicated in several types of cancer (5-7). The expression of miRNAs varies between cancer and normal cells and it also varies among different types of cancer. It has been shown that some miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in several different types of cancer (8-10), suggesting that they may play a role as a novel class of oncogenes or tumor-suppressor genes.Several target genes have been experimentally identified for some miRNAs in various LSCCs; however, the global pattern of cellular functions and pathways affected by miRNAs in supraglottic cancer remains elusive. In the present study, expression profiling of miRNAs in clinical supraglottic carcinoma tissue samples was carried out, revealing the relationship between miRNA exp...

MicroRNA-33a promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis by targeting PPARα in human hepatocellular carcinoma

“…Similarly, a previous study in lung cancer demonstrated that miR-33a had inhibitory effects on the metastasis of cancer cells towards bone tissue (17). It has also been observed in glioma cancer that miR-33a promotes the growth and self-renewal of glioma-initiating cells (18), while previous microarray results have indicated that miR-33a is upregulated in supraglottic carcinoma (19). In osteosarcoma (OS), miR-33a is upregulated in chemoresistant OS and promotes resistance of OS cells to cisplatin through downregulation of the transcription factor, Twist (20).…”

MicroRNA‐21 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma: Diagnostic and prognostic features

“…Hu et al studied microRNA‐21 and microRNA‐135 levels in 46 patients with LSCCs and showed that microRNA‐21 expression was significantly upregulated compared to the levels in normal laryngeal tissues . Zhang et al analyzed the expression of 1,145 human miRNAs in supraglottic LSCCs of 10 patients, and normal tissues, and found that only microRNA‐21, mir‐19a, and mir‐33a were significantly upregulated . Wei et al compared the microRNA‐21 levels of 116 premalignant laryngeal lesions and LSCCs, and found that the microRNA‐21 levels were significantly higher in both types of tissue compared to normal tissue .…”

“…MicroRNA‐21 is overexpressed in breast cancer, colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, glioblastoma, HNSCC (of the oral cavity, larynx, and the tongue), lung cancer, and cervical cancers, and is causally associated with cellular proliferation and apoptosis . MicroRNA‐21 was found to be oncogenically associated with LSCC in some studies, but only a few works have explored the relationship between microRNA‐21 expression and the clinical features of LSCC …”

miR-19a and SOCS-1 expression in the differential diagnosis of laryngeal (glottic) verrucous squamous cell carcinoma

“…The results of their multivariate analysis showed that miR-19a expression was an independent prognostic factor of overall survival for patients with laryngeal carcinoma. More specifically, Zhang et al 17 focused on miRNA involvement and expression in laryngeal supraglottic carcinoma, and found miR-19a upregulated in supraglottic carcinoma tissues. In our cohort of patients with conventional glottic SCC, miR-19a expression was significantly associated with pT stage (p=0.001), pathological stage (p=0.002) and grade (p=0.005), but not with N status.…”

“…The miR-19a, a member of the oncogenic miRNA-17–92 cluster,10 has been found overexpressed in many types of solid tumour, including glioma,11 oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma,12 gastric,13 bladder,14 and colon cancer 15. Its expression in HNSCC was also recently studied in laryngeal SCC,16 and in carcinomas involving supraglottic sites 17. The suppressors of cytokine signalling (SOCS) form a family of proteins with functions downstream from the cytokine receptors.…”