Identification of miRNAs and Their Target Genes Associated with Sunitinib Resistance in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients

Sunitinib has greatly improved the survival of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients in recent years. However, 20-30% of treated patients do not respond. To identify miRNAs and genes associated with a response, comparisons were made between biopsies from responder and non-responder ccRCC patients. Using integrated transcriptomic analyses, we identified 37 miRNAs and 60 respective target genes, which were significantly associated with the NF-kappa B, PI3K-Akt and MAPK pathways. We validated expression of the miRNAs ( , , , ) and target genes ( , and ) in 35 ccRCC patients. High levels of and low levels of , and were associated with worse overall survival (OS), and combined + levels distinguished responders from non-responders (AUC = 0.92). Using immunohistochemical staining of 170 ccRCC patients, VEGFR1 ( ) expression was associated with treatment response, histological grade and RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) score, whereas SAV1 and BLIMP1 ( ) were associated with metachronous metastatic disease. Using in situ hybridisation (ISH) to detect we observed higher tumoural cell expression in non-responders, and non-tumoural cell expression with increased histological grade. In summary, our preliminary analysis using integrated miRNA-target gene analyses identified several novel biomarkers in ccRCC patients that surely warrant further investigation.