Abstract
Glioma is a malignant nervous system tumor with a high fatality rate and poor prognosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important post-transcriptional modulators of glioma initiation and progression. Tumor progression often results from dysfunctional co-operation between pathways regulated by miRNAs. We therefore constructed a glioma progression-related miRNA-pathway crosstalk network that not only revealed some key miRNA-pathway patterns, but also helped characterize the functional roles of miRNAs during glioma progression. Our data indicate that crosstalk between cell cycle and p53 pathways is associated with grade II to grade III progression, while cell communications-related pathways involving regulation of actin cytoskeleton and adherens junctions are associated with grade IV glioblastoma progression. Furthermore, miRNAs and their crosstalk pathways may be useful for stratifying glioma and glioblastoma patients into groups with short or long survival times. Our data indicate that a combination of miRNA and pathway crosstalk information can be used for survival prediction.
Highlights
Glioma is a common malignant nervous system tumor
We systematically analyzed the dysfunctional crosstalk pathways that are regulated by miRNAs during glioma malignant progression
Global properties of miRNAs and genes associated with glioma malignant progression We identified the differential miRNAs and genes in glioma different grades (III vs IV) by using unpaired Student’s t-test; all samples were compared to grade II glioma samples used as controls
Summary
Glioma is a common malignant nervous system tumor. A great effort has been made to study the molecular mechanisms of glioma initiation and progression, currently the high fatality rate of this disease is still unchanged. The study of Ma et al has suggested that reduced expression of miR-544 is closely related with glioma, and has nominated miR-544 as a novel biomarker of malignant progression [9]. Moller et al have reviewed more than 200 miRNAs that modulate the hallmark processes of initiation and progression of glioma [10]. The specific mechanisms of how these miRNAs regulate the glioma malignant progression are still unclear
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