Relationship between the expression of miR137 in the serum of patients with metastatic lung cancer

Micro-Ribonocellic Acids (miRNA) are non-coding nucleic acids that are evolutionally protected and have a length of 24-20 nucleotides. MiRNAs control the expression of genes after transcription by mRNA degradation or translation inhibition. By blocking the oncogenic miRNAs and creating the necessary and functional miRNAs (tumor suppressor), these small regulatory RNAs can have therapeutic applications in cancer. The high mortality from lung cancer highlights the fact that the majority of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease. The use of serum biomarkers can help early detection. MiRNA is more stable than mRNA. MiRNA expression in tissue, plasma, sputum, and urine samples can be detected by fixed formulation. In addition, miRNAs are important modulators of gene expression, diagnostic markers, and prognosis. Therefore, in the present study, the expression of miR-137 in the serum of patients with lung cancer was investigated.

In this descriptive and analytical study, 100 serum samples were collected from patients referring to Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran from August 2017 to May 2018. Also, individual and clinical information were collected by a questionnaire and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used for the qualitative evaluation of changes in expression of miR-137.

Data showed that there was no significant difference between the expression of miR-137 in serum samples of the first and second stages of the disease. While in the serum of patients with lung cancer who metastasized in the third and fourth stages, miR-137 expression decreased by 3.2 (P=0.42) and 6.8 times (P=0.003), respectively. Based on the results, it can be inferred that the measurement of miR-137 expression in lung cancer patients with concomitant reduction can be a sign of the progression of the disease.

Based on the results of this study, there was a significant relationship between miR-137 expression and lung cancer.