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Plasma exosomal miR-21 and miR-181a differentiates follicular from papillary thyroid cancer

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy and its incidence has increased over the last few decades. As has been revealed by a number of studies, TC tissue’s micro-RNA (miRNA) profile may reflect histological features and the clinical behavior of tumor. However, alteration of the miRNA profile of plasma exosomes associated with TC development has to date not been explored. We isolated exosomes from plasma and assayed their characteristics using laser diffraction particle size analysis, atomic force microscopy, and western blotting. Next, we profiled cancer-associated miRNAs in plasma exosomes obtained from papillary TC patients, before and after surgical removal of the tumor. The diagnostic value of selected miRNAs was evaluated in a large cohort of patients displaying different statuses of thyroid nodule disease. MiRNA assessment was performed by RT-qPCR. In total, 60 patients with different types of thyroid nodal pathology were included in the study. Our results revealed that the development of papillary TC is associated with specific changes in exosomal miRNA profiles; this phenomenon can be used for differential diagnostics. MiRNA-31 was found to be over-represented in the plasma exosomes of patients with papillary TC vs. benign tumors, while miRNA-21 helped to distinguish between benign tumors and follicular TC. MiRNA-21 and MiRNA-181a-5p were found to be expressed reciprocally in the exosomes of patients with papillary and follicular TC, and their comparative assessment may help to distinguish between these types of TC with 100 % sensitivity and 77 % specificity.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Oncosystem Ltd. for (to R.S. and A.M.) and by grants from the Helmsley Trust Fund (to H.G.H).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oncosystem Ltd, Hoshimina 11/1-207, Saint-Petersburg, 194356, Russia

    Roman Samsonov & Anastasia Malek

  2. NN Petrov Institute of Oncology, Leningradskaya 68, Saint-Petersburg, 197758, Russia

    Roman Samsonov, Zamira Radzhabovа, Dmitry Vasilyev, Evgenia Tsyrlina, Lev Berstein & Anastasia Malek

  3. FSBI Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Saint-Petersburg, 188300, Russia

    Vladimir Burdakov, Tatiana Shtam & Michael Filatov

  4. Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Polytechnicheskaya 29, Saint-Petersburg, 195251, Russia

    Vladimir Burdakov, Tatiana Shtam & Michael Filatov

  5. Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Lavrentieva 8/2, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

    Sergey Titov, Michail Ivanov & Nikolay Kolesnikov

  6. Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Bar-Ilan University, Henrietta Szold 8, Safed, 13100, Israel

    Hava Gil-Henn & Anastasia Malek

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  1. Roman Samsonov
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Correspondence to Anastasia Malek.

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The study had Ethical Committee of N.N. Petrov Institute of Oncology approval. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Samsonov, R., Burdakov, V., Shtam, T. et al. Plasma exosomal miR-21 and miR-181a differentiates follicular from papillary thyroid cancer. Tumor Biol. 37, 12011–12021 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-5065-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-016-5065-3

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