Search

Background: Diagnosis of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) at an early stage is a daunting challenge due to the deficiency of specific noninvasive markers. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the initiation and progression of NSCLC. Measuring miRNA expression levels could provide a potential approach for the diagnosis of NSCLC. Our goals were to examine miR-223, miR-212, miR-192, miR-3074, SNORD33 and SNORD37 expression levels in tissue and sputum of NSCLC patients and cancer free subjects for molecular diagnosis of NSCLC. Methods: Relative expressions of miR-223, miR-212, miR-192, miR-3074, SNORD33 and SNORD37 were examined with quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay in tissue and sputum obtained from 17 NSCLC patients and 17 controls. Results: miR-3074 was upregulated in tissue samples of NSCLC patients compared with control group. miR-223 was upregulated, miR-212 and SNORD37 were downergulated in sputum samples of patients compared with controls. miR-223 quantification produced 82% sensitivity and 95% specificity with areas under the ROC curve at 0.90 in detection of NSCLC. Conclusion: miR-223 clearly discriminated cancer patients from cancer-free subjects and our results suggest that miR-223 could be a diagnostic useful biomarker. The measurement of altered miRNA expression in sputum samples manifested the potential noninvasive approach for detection of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To determine the expression profile of miRNA-199a-5p in intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) and its correlation to the grade of IDD., Material and Methods: This case-controlled study was conducted during a 6-month period from 2017 to 2018 in two university hospitals in Shiraz, Iran. We included 15 patients with grade 3 and 4 of Pfirrmann and 5 patients with traumatic lumbosacral fractures with grade I. Total discectomy was performed in all the individuals and the samples were sent to the laboratory. The nucleus pulposus (NP) cells were isolated and the RNA was extracted. cDNA was synthesized by reverse transcriptase and the expression was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCT)., Results: We overall included 20 patients in two study groups. Both study groups were comparable regarding the baseline and clinical characteristics except for age (p=0.026). The fold change (p=0.007), and relative expression (p=0.012) of the miRNA-199a- 5p was found to be significantly higher in patients compared to controls. The fold change (p=0.001), and relative expression (p < 0.001) were also associated with the Pfirrmann grading. We found that the area under curve (AUC) was 0.880 (95%CI: 0.721- 0.938) indicative of moderate accuracy., Conclusion: Expression of the miRNA-199a-5p is increased in the IDD. The expression of the miRNA-199a-5p was also associated with the grade of the degeneration based on the Pfirrmann grading.