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Differential MicroRNAs Expression in Serum of Patients with Lung Cancer, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and Pneumonia

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Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical regulatory roles in the physiological and pathological processes. The high stability of miRNAs in human serum represents attractive novel diagnostic biomarkers of clinical conditions. Several studies have shown that aberrant expression of miRNAs in human cancer including lung cancer, but little is known about their effects on some infectious lung diseases such as pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and pneumonia. In this study, we investigated miRNA expression pattern in serum of Egyptian patients with lung cancer, TB, and pneumonia compared with matched healthy controls. Using microarray-based expression profiling followed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction validation, we compared the levels of a series of circulating miRNAs (miR-21, miR-155, miR-182, and miR-197) in serum from patients with lung cancer (n = 65), pulmonary tuberculosis (n = 29), pneumonia (n = 29), and transudate (n = 16) compared with matched healthy controls (n = 37). MiRNA SNORD68 was the housekeeping endogenous control. We found that the serum levels of miR-21, miR-155, and miR-197 were significantly elevated in the patients with lung cancer and pneumonia whereas miR-182 and miR-197 levels were increased only in patients with lung cancer and TB, respectively, compared with controls. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that miR-182, miR-155, and miR-197 have superior diagnostic potential in discriminating patients with lung cancer, pneumonia, and TB, respectively, from controls. Our results conclude that the differential expression of the four studied miRNAs can be potential non-invasive biomarkers for patients with lung cancer, TB and pneumonia.

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Abbreviations

ALT:

Alanine aminotransferase

AST:

Aspartate aminotransferase

AUC:

Area under the curve

CT:

Cycle threshold

MIP-2:

Macrophage-inflammatory protein-2

miRNAs:

microRNAs

PE:

Pleural effusion

TB:

Pulmonary tuberculosis

RT-qPCR:

Real-time reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristic

TLR:

Toll-like receptor

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance provided by Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. We gratefully acknowledge Chest department, Al-Kasr Al-Eni Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Kasr El-Einy Street, Cairo, Egypt

    Amal A. Abd-El-Fattah, Nermin Abdel Hamid Sadik & Mariam Lotfy Aboulftouh

  2. Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Olfat Gamil Shaker

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  1. Amal A. Abd-El-Fattah
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  2. Nermin Abdel Hamid Sadik
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  3. Olfat Gamil Shaker
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Correspondence to Nermin Abdel Hamid Sadik.

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Abd-El-Fattah, A.A., Sadik, N.A.H., Shaker, O.G. et al. Differential MicroRNAs Expression in Serum of Patients with Lung Cancer, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and Pneumonia. Cell Biochem Biophys 67, 875–884 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12013-013-9575-y

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