Discovery of Novel miRNAs in Colorectal Cancer: Potential Biological Roles and Clinical Utility

Deregulated miRNAs are associated with colorectal cancer (CRC), with alterations depending on the tumor location. Novel tissue-specific miRNAs have been identified in different tumors and are associated with cancer. We used miRMaster to identify novel miRNAs in CRC from the TCGA and GEO data (discovery and validation groups). We used TCGA data from five tissues to analyze miRNA tissue specificity. miRDB was used to predict miRNA targets, and the UCSC Xena Browser was used to evaluate target expression. After successive analyses, we identified 15 novel miRNAs with the same expression patterns in CRC in both the discovery and validation groups. Four molecules (nov-miR-13844-5p, nov-miR-7154-5p, nov-miR-5035-3p, and nov-miR-590-5p) were differentially expressed in proximal and distal CRC. The nov-miR-3345-5p and nov-miR-13172-3p, which are upregulated in tumors, are only expressed in colorectal tissues. These molecules have been linked to a worse prognosis in right-sided colon and rectal carcinomas. An analysis revealed an association between eight novel miRNAs and 81 targets, mostly cancer-related genes, with varying expression based on tumor location. These findings provide new miRNAs with potential biological relevance, molecular biomarkers, and therapeutic targets for CRC treatment.