Abstract
Human serum and other body fluids are rich resources for the identification of novel biomarkers, which can be measured in routine clinical diagnosis. microRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules, which have an important function in regulating RNA stability and gene expression. The deregulation of microRNAs has been linked to cancer development and tumor progression. Recently, it has been reported that serum and other body fluids contain sufficiently stable microRNA signatures. Thus, the profiles of circulating microRNAs have been explored in a variety of studies aiming at the identification of novel non-invasive biomarkers.In this review, we discuss recent findings indicating that circulating microRNAs are useful as non-invasive biomarkers for different tumor types. Additionally, we summarize the knowledge about the mechanism of microRNA release and the putative functional roles of circulating microRNAs. Although several challenges remain to be addressed, circulating microRNAs have the potential to be useful for the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer diseases.
Highlights
One of the major challenges in cancer research is the identification of stable biomarkers, which can be routinely measured in accessible samples
Over many decades it has been shown that cell-free DNA and RNA is present in serum and other body fluids and that these circulating nucleic acids may represent potential biomarkers
It was shown that serum miRNAs are promising prognostic biomarkers: Hu et al demonstrated that circulating miRNAs can be used to predict the clinical outcomes of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients [74]
Summary
One of the major challenges in cancer research is the identification of stable biomarkers, which can be routinely measured in accessible samples. MiRNA profiles in serum and plasma samples from cancer patients have been screened to identify novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of tumors (summarized in Table 1): Lawrie et al were the first to discover tumor specific deregulation of circulating miRNAs. Their study demonstrated that miRNA-21 is highly abundant in the sera of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients [23]. Huang et al studied the miRNA profiles in the blood stream of early stage colon cancer patients They identified circulating miRNAs which distinguished adenomas from healthy controls with a 73% sensitivity and a 79% specificity [60]. Tumor-specific miRNAs were described: Lodes et al analyzed the serum miRNA
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