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Endocrine Abstracts (2014) 35 P1095 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.35.P1095

ECE2014 Poster Presentations Thyroid Cancer (70 abstracts)

Differential miRNAs expression in papillary thyroid cancer is associated with clinico-pathological features and BRAF mutation

Esmeralda Castelblanco 1, , Verónica Rosado 1, , Montserrat Martinez 2 , María Dolores Santos 1, , Veronica Mancikova 4 , Mercedes Robledo 4 , Xavier Matias-Guiu 2, , Javier Maravall 2 & Didac Mauricio 5


1Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition, Hospital Universitario Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain; 2Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Lleida/Universidad de Lleida, Lleida, Spain; 3Department of Pathology and Molecular Genetics, Hospital Universitario Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain; 4Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas, Madrid, Spain; 5Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition, Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona, Spain.


Introduction: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that regulate translation or degradation of target mRNAs. Therefore, miRNAs control gene expression in many biological processes, including proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. Deregulation of miRNAs expression is an important contributor to tumour development and progression. Even though several genetic and epigenetic lesions have been identified in human thyroid cancer, particularly in the papillary histotype (PTC), they lack conclusive prognostic value. The present study was undertaken to examine whether a differential expression of miRNAs could provide a tool to improve prognosis in PTC.

Design: The miRNAs expression profiles were examined using next-generation deep sequencing in 35 snap–frozen tissues from surgically removed PTC and nine normal thyroid samples. First, TMM and Benjamini-Hochberg’s methods validated the miRNAs sequences used in the final statistical analysis. The Neyman type A gene-wise modelling was used to detect the existence of statistical significance differences in miRNA expression levels between PTCs and i) normal thyroid tissue, ii) PTC carrying a BRAF mutation and iii) PTCs outcomes. The latter was analyzed comparing cases of poor prognosis (recurrence/metastases) vs those with a recurrence free-time of at least 4 years.

Results: Out of the 670 miRNAs examined, 168 miRNAs were differentially expressed in PTC compared with normal thyroid tissue. In BRAF mutated-PTC, there were 47 miRNAs significantly deregulated compared with non mutated-PTC. More significantly, only 8 miRNAs were differentially expressed in cases with a recurrence-free time of at least 4 years compared to cases with a poor prognosis (adjusted P<0.05, fold change ≤0.5 – ≥1.5).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that miRNAs expression profiles could provide a useful tool to discriminate not only PTC from normal thyroid tissue, but also cases with poor prognosis.

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