MicroRNA-506 is up-regulated in the development of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and is associated with attenuated disease progression.

Run-Fen Cheng,Jing-Yi Zhang,Yan Sun,Jian Wang,Bao-Cun Sun,Lin Sun,Yan-Rui Zhao,Zhi-Qiang Qiu

doi:10.1186/s40880-016-0128-9

Abstract

BackgroundMicroRNA-506 (miR-506) has been reported to function in several tumors as a tumor suppressor gene or oncogene. However, the expression and role of miR-506 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the phenotype of miR-506 in PDAC.MethodsUsing miRNA in situ hybridization, we examined the expression of miR-506 in 113 PDACs and 87 paired normal pancreatic tissues. We evaluated miR-506 expression in PDAC cells, normal pancreatic ducts, and acinus/islands, and we analyzed the associations between miR-506 expression and the clinicopathologic characteristics of PDAC patients.ResultsmiR-506 expression was higher in PDAC than in matched normal pancreatic ductal cells (P < 0.001). On the other hand, the combined group of well and moderately differentiated PDACs showed higher levels of miR-506 than the poorly differentiated ones (P = 0.023). Moreover, miR-506 expression was negatively associated with pathologic T category (P = 0.004) and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.033), suggesting that miR-506 might inhibit the progression of PDAC.ConclusionsOur results suggest that miR-506 either plays a role as an oncogene in the tumorigenesis and a tumor suppressor in the progression or serves as a house-keeping, tumor-suppressing miRNA, whose expression can be activated by oncogenic signals in early development to hinder the progression of PDAC.

Highlights

MicroRNA-506 has been reported to function in several tumors as a tumor suppressor gene or oncogene
In this study, using miRNA in situ hybridization (ISH), we examined the expression of miR-506 in 113 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and 87 matched normal pancreatic tissues
ISH results showed that, in all three patients, miR-506 expression was higher in PDAC than in Pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN), the limited number of patients precluded statistical evaluation (Fig. 2)

Summary

Introduction

MicroRNA-506 (miR-506) has been reported to function in several tumors as a tumor suppressor gene or oncogene. The expression and role of miR-506 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unclear. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal malignancy, with a median patient survival of 6 months and a 5-year overall survival rate of 5% [1, 2]. The high rate of lethality from PDAC is primarily due to the advanced stage of disease at diagnosis, which precludes curative surgery and leads to a poor prognosis. To improve patient survival, early diagnosis of PDAC is. Recent studies have shown that miRNAs elicit oncogenic or tumorsuppressive functions by directly targeting oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes, respectively [8,9,10]. Deregulated miRNAs have been found to play pivotal roles in PDAC development and progression by affecting multiple cellular processes, such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, survival, invasion, metastasis, and chemotherapeutic resistance of PDAC [11]

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