Evaluation of miR-506 and miR-4316 expression in early and non-invasive diagnosis of colorectal cancer

Purpose: Examination of the entire colon by colonoscopy remains the golden standard for screening of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, patients are reluctant to perform invasive colonoscopies because of interference with their intimacy. Therefore, the potential use of non-invasive analysis of microRNAs expression in liquid biopsy as a novel biomarker for early CRC has investigated in several studies. In this study, we analyzed the expression of two novel microRNAs: miR-506 and miR-4316, which have never been examined in CRC.

Methods: Plasma samples were collected from 56 patients (median age of 68 years) with operable colorectal cancer and from 70 healthy individuals (median age of 59 years). Expression of plasma microRNAs was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction using Eco real-time PCR device (Illumina, USA).

Results: We found a significant elevated expression of both examined microRNAs in early CRC patients when compared to those in healthy individuals (p = 0.0054 for miR-506 and p = 0.0025 for miR-4316). The expression of miR-506 and miR-4316 did not depend on gender, age, disease stage, and tumor localization of CRC patients. ROC curve analysis showed that both examined microRNAs could differentiate early stage colorectal cancer from healthy individuals with 76.8% specificity and 60.7% sensitivity for miR-506 analysis and 76.8% specificity and 75% specificity for miR-4316 analysis.

Conclusion: Our study revealed that elevated expression of miR-506 and miR-4316 in peripheral blood were potential molecular markers for early colorectal cancer.