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MicroRNA biomarkers in glioblastoma

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Abstract

Recent research suggests that deregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) is involved in initiation and progression of many cancers, including gliomas and that miRNAs hold great potential as future diagnostic and therapeutic tools in cancer. MiRNAs are a class of short non-coding RNA sequences (18–24 nucleotides), which base-pair to target messenger RNA (mRNA) and thereby cause translational repression or mRNA degradation based on the level of complementarity between strands. Profiling miRNAs in clinical glioblastoma samples has shown aberrant expression of numerous miRNAs when compared to normal brain tissues. Understanding these alterations is key to developing new biomarkers and intelligent treatment strategies. This review presents an overview of current knowledge about miRNA alterations in glioblastoma while focusing on the clinical future of miRNAs as biomarkers and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of various methods used in evaluating their expression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Odense University Hospital, Winsløwparken 15, 3. Floor, 5000, Odense C, Denmark

    Simon Kjær Hermansen & Bjarne Winther Kristensen

  2. Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Simon Kjær Hermansen & Bjarne Winther Kristensen

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  1. Simon Kjær Hermansen
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Correspondence to Simon Kjær Hermansen.

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Hermansen, S.K., Kristensen, B.W. MicroRNA biomarkers in glioblastoma. J Neurooncol 114, 13–23 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-013-1155-x

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