MicroRNA-21 in Colorectal Cancer: “Just Another Brick in the Wall”?
Menée sur des lignées cellulaires et plusieurs cohortes de patients atteints d'un cancer colorectal, cette étude évalue l'intérêt de mesurer le niveau sérique du micro-ARN 21 pour le diagnostic précoce et le pronostic de la maladie
MicroRNAs (miRNAs)—small, noncoding RNA strands consisting of 18 to 25 base pairs—have been investigated extensively during the last decade. Initially seen as superfluous material, it has become clear that they play a critical role in translational and posttranscriptional regulation of protein processing. In cancer cells those processes are altered and cancer cells therefore display an irregular miRNA configuration. Many solid tumors have specific patterns of miRNA expression levels, which are used in several commercially available, and, in some cases, Food and Drug Administration approved, diagnostic tests. It is possible to determine tumor origin and, in part, the histologic subtype of solid tumors by its miRNA signature. Evaluating miRNA in tissue and body fluids is therefore an emerging field of biomarker development. MicroRNA 21 (miR-21) is found to be upregulated in a wide range of solid tumors including lung, breast, gastric, colon, and glioblastoma (1), and therefore as a single marker is not specific for colon cancer. Its reported RNA targets include transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß), phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), programmed cell death protein 4 (PDCD4), protein sprouty 1 (Spry-1), phosphatase of regenerating liver 3 (PRL-3), and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B-cells (NF-
κB). Therefore, miR-21 may be involved in the
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Journal of the National Cancer Institute , commentaire, 2013