Data Mining the Prognostic Biomarkers: miRNAs Targeting the Chemotherapeutic Agent 5-Fluorouracil in Colon Cancer

Colon cancer is one of the most common and has the highest mortality rate in the world. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) as potential biomarkers play crucial roles in diagnosis, prognosis, and drug-response prediction of colon cancer.

In this study, we collected miRNA expression data from the Broad GDAC Firehose and screened specific miRNA-gene pairs after treatment with 5-fluorouracil treatment and used COAD analysis to study the association of miRNAs and inhibitor of the inhibitory genes. Potential drug-related miRNAs were further extracted via hypergeometric testing.

The results showed that 13,651 miRNA-gene pairs were retrieved, including 242 miRNAs and 5,179 genes. The association between miRNAs and the inhibitor of inhibitory genes DPYD, TYMS, UNG was indicated. We further extracted 4 potential drug-related miRNAs, including hsa-mir-551a, hsa-mir-144, hsa-mir-519b, hsa-mir-506. The miRNA-gene pairs associated with 5-fluorouracil exhibit better prognosis in patients with CRC.

We expected that up-regulation of hsa-mir-551a, hsa-mir-144, and hsa-mir-506 and down-regulation of hsa-mir-519b would exhibit better prognosis. The findings would underpin the fundamental hypothesis of mi-RNAs being prognostic signal biomarkers in therapy of 5-fluorouracil in CRC.