ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the diagnostic value of salivary and plasma miR-21 in patients with esophageal cancer (EC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Total RNA was extracted from saliva and plasma samples from 50 stage I and 50 stage II patients with EC and 50 healthy controls for measurement of miR-21 levels using qPCR. The diagnostic values of salivary and plasma miR-21 levels were assessed for stage I, stage II, and stage I+II EC.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Salivary and plasma miR-21 were significantly higher in the EC patients than in the control group. The diagnostic sensitivities of plasma miR-21 for stage I, stage II, and stage I+II EC were 96%, 64% and 97%, with specificities of 44%, 84%, and 56%, respectively; the sensitivities of salivary miR-21 were 90%, 88%, and 89%, respectively, with the same specificities of 64%. Regardless of EC staging, the expression of plasma miR-21 showed a significant positive correlation with that of salivary miR-21, and their diagnostic values were comparable.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Both salivary and plasmatic miR-21 can be sensitive biomarkers for EC, and salivary miR-21 detection has the potential to replace plasma detection for EC diagnosis.</p>
Subject(s)
Humans , Biomarkers, Tumor , Blood , Chemistry , Esophageal Neoplasms , Blood , Diagnosis , MicroRNAs , Blood , Plasma , Chemistry , Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction , Saliva , Chemistry , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
AIM:To explore the effects of miR-21 on biological behavior of colon cancer cells and their sensi-tivity to epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody cetuximab .METHODS:Lentiviral vectors were constructed to generate up-and down-regulations of miR-21 lentiviruses (LV-miR-21 and LV-anti-miR-21, respectively), and the cor-responding negative control viruses (LV-miR-21 NC and LV-anti-miR-21 NC, respectively) were also constructed.The vi-ruses were used to infect human colon cancer RKO cells .The changes of the miR-21 expression level , the cell prolifera-tion, the colony-forming ability, the cell apoptosis and the sensitivity of the cells to cetuximab were detected by real -time PCR, MTT assay, soft agar colony assay , flow cytometry and CCK-8 assay.RESULTS: The lentivirus titers of LV-miR-21, LV-miR-2 NC, LV-anti-miR-21 and LV-anti-miR-21 NC were 3.0 ×1012 TU/L, 6.0 ×1011 TU/L, 2.0 ×1012 TU/L and 8.0 ×1011 TU/L, respectively.The infection efficiency was over 80% by the observation of green fluorescence .The miR-21 expression level , the cell proliferation , and the colony-forming ability in LV-miR-21 group were significantly higher than those in LV-anti-miR-21 group.The early apoptotic rate and the inhibitory rate of cetuximab for the cells in LV-anti-miR-21 group were higher than those in LV-miR-21 group.CONCLUSION: miR-21 promotes the proliferation of colon cancer cells.Down-regulation of miR-21 enhances the sensitivity of the colon cancer cells to the targeted therapy drug cetuximab.