Identification of molecular markers using integrative analysis involving genomic alterations, genes and miRNAs differentially expressed in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: functional analysis of interaction between miRNAs and target genes

• Grant number: 13/15074-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: December 15, 2013
• End date: December 14, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Augusto Soares
• Grantee: Yukie Sato Kuwabara
• Supervisor: George A. Calin
• Host Institution: A C Camargo Cancer Center. Fundação Antonio Prudente (FAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/19572-6 - Identification of molecular markers by integrated analysis of genomic alterations and gene and miRNAs expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, BP.PD

Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the most common histological type of cancer in this organ. ESCC is associated with poor prognosis, because it is usually at advanced stage disease at the moment of diagnosis. Therefore, it is important to identify the molecular markers that determine the most appropriate surgical approach in order to select patients for target-directed therapies and improve the diagnostic methods. It has been demonstrated that genomic alterations can directly affect the gene expression pattern. Some reports have demonstrated that integrated analysis involving mRNAs and miRNAs expression can contribute for a better understanding of the tumor development and progression, because alterations in miRNAs expression can affect the activity of the target mRNAs of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. MiRNAs are involved in many biological processes as cell development, differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis, however little is known about the specific functions performed by miRNAs, many of which can be relevant for tumor development. The importance of miRNAs in tumor classification and prognostic prediction has been focus of many studies as well as the new therapeutics strategies with miRNAs as targets have been developed. Although there are a number of studies about miRNAs in ESCC, no studies have so far investigated the involvement of these non-coding RNAs in mechanisms that can lead to gene expression changes not affected by genomic gains and losses of DNA. This study aimed to investigate the role of miRNAs in post-transcriptional mechanism leading to expression changes of the genes that were involved in genomic gain but showed a decreased expression identified by previous integrated analysis involving genomic and transcriptomic data in ESCC. (AU)