MicroRNA Analysis in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian carcinoma is a type of cancer with high mortality, which is often diagnosed in late stages indicating the necessity to identify new non-invasive biomarkers for detection this malignancy in early stages of the disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) seem to be one of the potential possibilities. MiRNAs are small noncoding RNA molecules, which regulate gene expression and are involved in many cellular processes including carcinogenesis. Total RNA was isolated from sera of nine ovarian cancer patients treated at Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute. As a control samples, we used sera from six cancer-free women. Purified RNA was subjected to reverse transcription followed by cDNA preamplification. MiRNA expression was determined using TaqMan MicroRNA Assays. For statistical analysis was used nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test. MiRNAs miR-30a-5p and miR-26b were identified as significantly overexpressed miRNAs in sera from ovarian cancer patients. Other miRNAs showing elevated level were identified as miR-628-5p, 520c-3p, miR-486 and let-7b. On the other hand, miR-596 showed reduced levels in sera from ovarian cancer patients. A significantly different level of at least two miRNAs (miR-30a-5p a miR-26b) has been observed in cancer patients in comparison with healthy individuals. These miRNAs would serve as a powerful non-invasive diagnostic tool to detect ovarian epithelial cancer in so called liquid biopsies.Key words: microRNA - biomarkers - ovarian epithelial cancer - qPCR This work was supported by MEYS - NPS I - LO1413. The authors declare they have no potential conflicts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study. The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE recommendation for biomedical papers.Submitted: 13. 3. 2017Accepted: 26. 3. 2017.