Micro transcriptome of thyroid oncogenesis: post-transcriptional regulation in tumorigenesis and progression of thyroid cancer

• Grant number: 11/52051-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal researcher: Edna Teruko Kimura
• Grantee: Murilo Vieira Geraldo
• Home Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Thyroid cancer incidence increases worldwide. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common histological subtype of thyroid cancer. About 5% of the PTC cases present a more aggressive behavior, evolving to undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma and becoming insensitive to chemotherapy, leading to the patient death within 5 years. In PTCs, the genetic alterations so far characterized lead to the sustained activation of the cell proliferation pathway MAPK. More recently, microarray analysis revealed the deregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) in PTC samples. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small non-coding RNAs involved in post-transcriptional gene regulation frequently associated to tumorigenesis and tumor progression. In thyroid cancer, although miRNAs are considered promising molecular markers, their role on tumor progression remains unclear, particularly regarding to the dedifferentiation observed in the more aggressive PTCs. The objective of this study is to identify and understand the role of miRNAs in thyroid tumor progression. The panel of miRNAs differentially expressed in thyroid tumor samples extracted from transgenic mice harboring the oncogene BRAFT1799A will be assessed through next-generation sequencing, followed by an in silico analysis. The differentially expressed miRNAs will be functionally validated in thyroid tumor cell lines. We expect to identify miRNAs involved in relevant steps of tumorigenesis and tumor progression, which could open up perspectives for the development of new therapeutic strategies for thyroid cancer. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

GERALDO, MURILO VIEIRA; NAKAYA, HELDER IMOTO; KIMURA, EDNA TERUKO. Down-regulation of 14q32-encoded miRNAs and tumor suppressor role for miR-654-3p in papillary thyroid cancer. ONCOTARGET, v. 8, n. 6, p. 9597-9607, 2017. Web of Science Citations: 9.

GERALDO, MURILO V.; KIMURA, EDNA T. Integrated Analysis of Thyroid Cancer Public Datasets Reveals Role of Post-Transcriptional Regulation on Tumor Progression by Targeting of Immune System Mediators. PLoS One, v. 10, n. 11 NOV 4 2015. Web of Science Citations: 11.