Circulating microRNAs in Early Breast Cancer Patients and Its Association With Lymph Node Metastases

MicroRNAs have emerged as important regulators of the metastatic process. In addition, circulating miRNAs appear to be surprisingly stable in peripheral blood making them ideal noninvasive biomarkers for disease diagnosis. Here, we performed a proof-of-principle study investigate expression profile and their association with lymph node status early breast cancer patients. Sentinel was detected by one-step nucleic acid (OSNA) analysis. We RNA-sequencing 16 plasma samples validated results qPCR. Gene Ontology term enrichment KEGG pathway analyses were carried out using DAVID tools. found16 differentially expressed (q < 0.01) patients positive SLNs. Fourteen down-regulated (miR-339-5p, miR-133a-3p, miR-326, miR-331-3p, miR-369-3p, miR-328-3p, miR-26a-3p, miR-139-3p, miR-493-3p, miR-664a-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-323b-3p, miR-1307-3p miR-423-3p) 2 up-regulated (miR-101-3pand miR-144-3p). Hierarchical clustering clearly distinguished according status. ontology analysis showed significant biological processes associated regulation epithelial mesenchymal transition, cell proliferation transcriptional regulation. Our suggest potential role several surrogate markers metastases Further validation larger cohort will necessary confirm our results.