Micro-ribonucleic acid expression profiling and bioinformatic target gene analyses in laryngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Zhong-Ming Lu,1 Ye-Feng Lin,1 Li Jiang,2 Liang-Si Chen,1 Xiao-Ning Luo,1 Xin-Han Song,1 Shao-Hua Chen,1 Si-Yi Zhang1 1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, 2Medical Research Center, Guangdong General Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China Abstract: Abnormal expression of micro-ribonucleic acid (miRNA) might be clinically valuable as a biomarker or treatment target in the early diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of tumors. However, little is known concerning abnormal miRNA expression of laryngeal carcinoma, one of the most commonly encountered head and neck tumors. Microarray analysis was used to obtain miRNA-expression profiles of ten pairs of freshly frozen laryngeal carcinoma tissue and surrounding normal tissue specimens. Characteristic miRNAs that were significantly related to laryngeal carcinoma were identified. Verification was performed using an additional 32 pairs of samples. The expression of two miRNAs (miR-21-3p and miR-106b-3p) was upregulated in both microarray and quantitative real-time polymerase chain-reaction analyses, whereas the expression of six miRNAs (let-7f-5p, miR-10a-5p, miR-125a-5p, miR-144-3p, miR-195-5p, and miR-203) was downregulated. The decreased expression of let-7f-5p and miR-195-5p is a novel finding in head and neck cancer. The target genes of these miRNAs were also predicted through multiple software programs. The differential expression of miRNAs might be related to the early onset and development of laryngeal carcinoma, and may be exploited as new biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the treatment of laryngeal carcinoma. Keywords: microRNA, laryngeal carcinoma, expression profiling, bioinformatics, target prediction