Evaluation of expressional deregulations of micro RNAs and their potential role as molecular biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Abstract

e18147 Background: Papillary thyroid carcinoma is the most prevalent type of thyroid cancer that accounts for more than 80% of all thyroid cancer cases. Papillary thyroid carcinoma has been linked to the deregulation of numerous miRNAs. These miRNAs are endogenous, single-stranded non-coding RNAs that are 20–22 nucleotides long. They play a significant role in the initiation, development and progression of variety of human cancers as well as this particular carcinoma. The study aims to investigate the expression level changes in the miRNA-21, miRNA-187-3p, miRNA-31 and miRNA-200a-5p in papillary thyroid carcinoma, multinodular goiter and healthy tissue specimens. Methods: Fresh tumor tissue specimen of papillary thyroid carcinoma, multinodular goiter and adjacent healthy tissue samples as control were collected at the time of surgery. After RNA extraction, first strand cDNA was synthesized and amplified with specific primers, Real-time PCR was carried out to check the expression of the miRNAs in papillary thyroid carcinoma, multinodular goiter & controls. ROC-AUC curve was used to check the diagnostic value of all the selected microRNAs. Statistical analyses were carried out by using SPSS & Graph pad Prism soft wares. Results: miRNA-21 and miRNA-187-3p were observed to be significantly upregulated while miRNA-31 and miRNA-200a-5p were significantly downregulated in Papillary thyroid carcinoma specimen (P < 0.05). ROC analysis on individual miRNAs showed that all these miRNAs could be the good biomarkers as the combined ROC analysis presented an AUC value of 0.847 for the whole panel of microRNAs. Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study microRNAs showed a strong association with papillary thyroid cancer. A diagnostic panel for miRNAs may be developed, which might aid in better therapy choices for unclear papillary thyroid cancer cases. Personalized medicine may incorporate the use of miRNAs as biomarkers in papillary thyroid cancer.