Serum microRNAs as Hallmark Biomarkers in Breast Cancer Patients Subtyping

With a high incidence rate among the women around the world, breast cancer is a potentially fatal state of uncontrolled cellular proliferation that requires urgent attention. The annual prevalence of breast cancer is estimated to be near ۲ million cases. From a histological point of view, breast cancer is categorized into Luminal A, Luminal B, Luminal-HER۲, HER۲ enriched, Basal-like, and TNP-non-basal sub-types, that very well implies the complex nature of the disease. With due attention to the utmost complexity of the disease, this sort of malignancy needs to be evaluated through more precise molecular strategies. As of recent, microRNAs have started to garner the attention of researchers for their fascinating role as gene expression regulators in a broad variety of cellular processes. It has been suggested that microRNAs might affect hallmark oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, thus, being implicated in tumor development. In this regard, evaluation of microRNAs in body fluids can be considered as a promising approach with a non-invasive nature. For the last few decades, serum was considered as one of the most reliable samples, due mostly to its easy sampling, high stability under various severe conditions and containment of invaluable biomarkers. More recently, the growing body of evidence has led scientist to scrutinize the possibility that serum could be considered as a great source for cancer-related microRNAs. The obtained data support the evidence that serum microRNAs might actually be capable of precisely distinguishing different stages of breast cancer. Lesser platelet contaminant is an important factor that can affect the serum microRNAs. The other factor is higher serum RNA concentration, due to the release of RNA from cells to serum. Briefly, serum microRNAs can be considered complementary molecular tests to traditional diagnostics. Themore development of this approach could be helpful in personalized medicine in near future.

کلیدواژه ها:

MicroRNA (MiRNAs) ، Biomarker ، Serum ، Breast Cancer (BC)