Our study demonstrates that high miR-21 expression levels in PBMCs were correlated with the presence, recurrence, and metastasis of PCa and that this may be a useful biomarker for screening PCa and monitoring the risk of PCa recurrence and metastasis.
Taken together, the results suggest that, as an oncogenic miRNA, mir-21 has a role not only in tumor growth but also in invasion and tumor metastasis by targeting multiple tumor/metastasis suppressor genes.
Notably, patients with advanced clinical TNM stage (n=16) or distal metastasis (n=5) demonstrated higher miR-21 expression than those without them (n=26, or n=37) (p<0.05, or p<0.001).
In conclusion, miR-21 is a key player in oncogenic EMT, its overexpression is controlled by the cooperation of genetic and epigenetic alterations, and its levels, along with ITGβ4 and PDCD4 expression, could be exploited as a prognostic tool for CRC metastasis.
In conclusion, microRNA-21 is crucial for CCA carcinogenesis and metastasis, which could induce EMT process, thereby promote the invasion and migration of CCA cells.
In conclusion, skeletal muscle mass may be a prognostic and predictive biomarker for distant metastasis in CRC patients and quantification of serum miR-21 expression could help clinicians make decisions regarding nutrition intervention strategies in CRC patients.
The augmented expression of miR-21, mediated by active mTOR and Stat3 signalling, conferred increased invasive properties to mouse keratinocytes in vitro and in vivo, whereas blockade of miR-21 in a metastatic spindle cell line inhibits metastasis development.
For the first time, a high expression of miR-21 was associated with lymph node positivity (p = 0.025) and the development of distant metastases (p = 0.009) in CRC patients.
Recent studies have indicated that miR-21 is one of the important miRNAs associated with tumor growth and metastasis, but the role and molecular mechanism of miR-21 in regulating tumor angiogenesis remain to be elucidated.
In this study, we found that RECK is a target of at least three groups of miRNAs (miR-15b/16, miR-21 and miR-372/373); that RECK mutants lacking the target sites for these miRNA show augmented tumor/metastasis-suppressor activities; and that miR-372/373 are upregulated in response to hypoxia through HIF1alpha and TWIST1, whereas miR-21 is upregulated by RAS/ERK signaling.
Finally, a prognostic signature of miR 21,135a, 335, 206 and let-7a for detecting the presence of metastases had a specificity of 87% and sensitivity of 76% for the presence of metastases.
PIK3R1 targeting by miR-21 suppresses tumor cell migration and invasion by reducing PI3K/AKT signaling and reversing EMT, and predicts clinical outcome of breast cancer.
MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is considered an onco-microRNA given its abilities to suppress the actions of several tumor suppressor genes and to promote tumor cell growth, invasion and metastasis.
In this review, I plan to place a special emphasis on HA/CD44-induced signaling pathways and the presence of several novel miRNAs (e.g., miR-10b/miR-302/miR-21) and lncRNAs (e.g., UCA1) together with their target functions (e.g., tumor cell migration, invasion, and chemoresistance) during cancer development and progression.
With the tumor, node, and metastasis stage developed (Stage I vs. III and IV, P < 0.05), the serum miR-21 expression level increased, but there was no statistical difference between Stage I patients and hepatolithiasis patients or healthy control (P > 0.05 for both).
Among the several types of miRNAs, microRNA-21 (miR-21) is dysregulated in several types of cancer and plays a key role in carcinogenesis, recurrence, and metastasis.
The differential diagnosis of these lesions is sometimes difficult based on morphologic, cytologic, or clinical features alone. miR-146b-5p and miR-21 deregulation has been associated with progression and metastasis of thyroid cancers.