As miR‑203a‑3p was determined to target THBS2 to inhibit CRC progression and metastasis; thus, miR‑203a‑3p may be considered as a potential novel approach to treating CRC.
This is the first study to report RBP4 and THBS2 as diagnosis serum biomarkers for CRC, which might be a good supplement for CEA or CA19-9 for clinical diagnosis.
Three of those (COL1A2, SFRP2, SOCS3) showed hypermethylation and THBS2 showed hypomethylation both in AD and in CRC samples compared to NAT, while BCL2, PRIMA1 and PTGDR showed hypermethylation only in the CRC group. miR-21 was found to be significantly (p < 0.01) upregulated in adenoma and tumour samples compared to the healthy colonic tissue controls and could explain the altered expression of genes for which DNA methylation changes do not appear to play role (e.g.BCL2, MAL, PTGS2).