As a result, we identified six significantly upregulated miRNAs in the serum of PC: let-7b-5p, miR-192-5p, miR-19a-3p, miR-19b-3p, miR-223-3p, and miR-25-3p.
While hedgehog (Hh) ligand levels are upregulated in pancreatic cancer cells and contribute to desmoplasia, there is significant downregulation of tumor suppressor let-7b, which targets mutant KRAS, C-MYC and several other genes involved in pancreatic cancer progression, invasion, and metastasis.
Interestingly, the differential expression of miRNA in mice also corroborated with the miRNA expression in human PC cell lines and tissue samples; ectopic expression of Let-7b in CD18/HPAF and Capan1 cells resulted in the downregulation of KRAS and MSST1 expression.