TY - JOUR
T1 - Circulating microRNA Profiling Identifies a Subset of Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patients with Evidence of Cancer-Associated Hypoxia
AU - Cheng, Heather H.
AU - Mitchell, Patrick S.
AU - Kroh, Evan M.
AU - Dowell, Alexander E.
AU - Chéry, Lisly
AU - Siddiqui, Javed
AU - Nelson, Peter S.
AU - Vessella, Robert L.
AU - Knudsen, Beatrice S.
AU - Chinnaiyan, Arul M.
AU - Pienta, Kenneth J.
AU - Morrissey, Colm
AU - Tewari, Muneesh
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Jason Bielas and members of his lab for assistance with hypoxia experiments. We thank Rachael Parkin and Ausra Bendoraite for technical assistance, Theodore D. Koreckij and Jennifer Noteboom for help with clinical data retrieval, and Evan Yu for helpful comments on the manuscript. This material is the result of work supported by resources from the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington (to R.L.V.).
PY - 2013/7/30
Y1 - 2013/7/30
N2 - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (∼22 nucleotide) non-coding RNAs that regulate a myriad of biological processes and are frequently dysregulated in cancer. Cancer-associated microRNAs have been detected in serum and plasma and hold promise as minimally invasive cancer biomarkers, potentially for assessing disease characteristics in patients with metastatic disease that is difficult to biopsy. Here we used miRNA profiling to identify cancer-associated miRNAs that are differentially expressed in sera from patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) as compared to healthy controls. Of 365 miRNAs profiled, we identified five serum miRNAs (miR-141, miR-200a, miR-200c, miR-210 and miR-375) that were elevated in cases compared to controls across two independent cohorts. One of these, miR-210, is a known transcriptional target of the hypoxia-responsive HIF-1α signaling pathway. Exposure of cultured prostate cancer cells to hypoxia led to induction of miR-210 and its release into the extracellular environment. Moreover, we found that serum miR-210 levels varied widely amongst mCRPC patients undergoing therapy, and correlated with treatment response as assessed by change in PSA. Our results suggest that (i) cancer-associated hypoxia is a frequent, previously under-appreciated characteristic of mCRPC, and (ii) serum miR-210 may be further developed as a predictive biomarker in patients with this distinct disease biology.
AB - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (∼22 nucleotide) non-coding RNAs that regulate a myriad of biological processes and are frequently dysregulated in cancer. Cancer-associated microRNAs have been detected in serum and plasma and hold promise as minimally invasive cancer biomarkers, potentially for assessing disease characteristics in patients with metastatic disease that is difficult to biopsy. Here we used miRNA profiling to identify cancer-associated miRNAs that are differentially expressed in sera from patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) as compared to healthy controls. Of 365 miRNAs profiled, we identified five serum miRNAs (miR-141, miR-200a, miR-200c, miR-210 and miR-375) that were elevated in cases compared to controls across two independent cohorts. One of these, miR-210, is a known transcriptional target of the hypoxia-responsive HIF-1α signaling pathway. Exposure of cultured prostate cancer cells to hypoxia led to induction of miR-210 and its release into the extracellular environment. Moreover, we found that serum miR-210 levels varied widely amongst mCRPC patients undergoing therapy, and correlated with treatment response as assessed by change in PSA. Our results suggest that (i) cancer-associated hypoxia is a frequent, previously under-appreciated characteristic of mCRPC, and (ii) serum miR-210 may be further developed as a predictive biomarker in patients with this distinct disease biology.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0069239
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0069239
M3 - Article
C2 - 23935962
AN - SCOPUS:84880847960
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 8
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 7
M1 - e69239
ER -