Evaluation of the expression of mir-21 oncomir, new diagnostic and prognostic molecular markerin tissue and blood of breast cancer patients

Breast cancer is considered as a heterogeneous disease, which involves different profile changes in both mRNA and micro-RNA (miRNA) expression. In recent years, miRNAs have emerged as key players of the carcinogenic process such as tumor initiation, progression and drug resistance. Moreover, these vital micro molecules shift from tumor cells to blood stream and due to the high stability of circulatingmiRNAs in serum/plasma, they could be used as signatures of related cancers. Therefore, the aim of this study is the evaluation of diagnostic potential of miR-21 oncomir in Iranian Azeri patients of breast cancer. 25 fresh tumoral and marginal tissues with plasma of patients and healthy women were collected and processed for RNA isolation. Then, quantitative expression of miR-21 was analysed by Real-Time PCR in different groups. Our data illustrated that the expression of miR-21 in tumor tissues and margins as well as plasma of normal and breast cancer patients are significantly different (P<0.05). In conclusion, our work shows that plasma miR-21 could be used as a diagnostic molecular marker forinvasive ductal carcinomas in a non-invasive manner. However, this claim should be confirmed via more related works that are in part under investigation in our lab.

Keywords:

breast cancer , micro RNA , Oncomir , biomarker , Real Time PCR