Serum levels of miR-320 family members are associated with clinical parameters and diagnosis in prostate cancer patients

Abstract

// <![CDATA[ $('.header-date').hide();$('#titleAuthors').hide();$('#abstractHeader').hide(); // ]]> Verena Lieb1, Katrin Weigelt1, Lena Scheinost1, Kersten Fischer2, Thomas Greither3, Marios Marcou2, 3, Gerit Theil2, Helmut Klocker4, Hans-Juergen Holzhausen5, Xin Lai6, Julio Vera6, Arif Ekici7, Wolfgang Horninger4, Paolo Fornara2, Bernd Wullich1, Helge Taubert1 and Sven Wach1 1Department of Urology and Pediatric Urology, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany 2Department of Urology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany 3Center for Reproductive Medicine and Andrology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany 4Department of Urology, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria 5Institute of Pathology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany 6Laboratory of Systems Tumor Immunology, Department of Dermatology, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany 7Institute of Human Genetics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany Correspondence to: Helge Taubert, email: helge.taubert@uk-erlangen.de Keywords: miR-320 family; diagnosis; prostate cancer; PSA Abbreviations: PCa: prostate cancer; PSA: prostate specific antigen; OS: overall survival; RPE: radical prostatectomy; BPH: benign prostatic hyperplasia. Received: July 06, 2017 Accepted: December 23, 2017 Published: December 30, 2017 ABSTRACT We studied the association of the serum levels of the microRNA family members miR-320a/-b/-c with clinico-pathological data to assess their applicability as diagnostic biomarker in prostate cancer (PCa) patients. The levels of miR-320a/-b/-c in 3 groups were evaluated by qRT-PCR (145 patients with PCa, 31 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and 19 healthy controls). The levels of the three family members of miR-320 were directly correlated within each group (P < 0.001), but they differed significantly among the three groups (P < 0.001). The serum levels of the miR-320 family members were significantly increased in older patients compared to younger patients (≤ 66 years vs. > 66 years, P ≤ 0.001). In addition, the levels of all three miR-320 family members were significantly different in patients with low tumor stage compared with those with high tumor stage (miR-320a: P = 0.034; miR-320b: P = 0.006; miR-320c: P = 0.007) and in patients with low serum PSA compared with those with high serum PSA (≤ 4 ng vs. > 4 ng; miR-320a: P = 0.003; miR-320b: P = 0.003; miR-320c: P = 0.006). The levels of these miRNAs were inversely correlated with serum PSA levels. Detection in the serum samples of PCa patients with or without PSA relapse revealed higher levels of miR-320a/-b/-c in the group without PSA relapse before/after radical prostatectomy than in that with PCa relapse. In summary, the differences among the PCa/BPH/healthy control groups with respect to miR-320a/-b/-c levels in conjunction with higher levels in patients without a PSA relapse than in those with a relapse suggest the diagnostic potential of these miRNA-320 family members in PCa patients.