Twelve miRNAs were selected for validation. miR-376a-3p, miR-4306, miR-4433a-5p, and miR-485-3p expression significantly increased in patients with PTC compared to that in healthy people and patients with benign thyroid nodules (P ˂ 0.05).
In validation, RP11-159F24.1 (up-regulated; P = 0.0013) showed an opposite expression pattern with its target miR-485 (down-regulated; P = 0.0013) in PTC, indicating that the RP11-159F24.1/miR-485/mRNAs axis might play an important role in the development of PTC.