Oncogenic microRNA-1290 and SCAI Gene as Potential Biomarker for Colorectal Carcinoma

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the world's third most frequent cancer, with a significant mortality rate due to late detection. There is a need to search for biomarkers that can detect colorectal cancer at an early stage. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate several targets that function as oncogenes and/or tumor suppressor genes, so any change in microRNA expression level can predict abnormality.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the expression of miR-1290, and Suppressor of cancer cell invasion (SCAI) gene that may be used as biomarkers for early diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma.

This study included 50 subjects consisting of newly diagnosed colorectal carcinoma patients (n = 25), and healthy controls (n = 25). After RNA isolation and reverse transcription, the expression level of miR-1290 and SCAI gene in the tissues and plasma samples of CRC patients were analyzed using real time PCR and compared with healthy individuals as normal controls. The 2^-ΔΔCt formula was used to compute the fold-change, while using miR-16 and GAPDH as reference genes for normalization.

We found that miR-1290 is upregulated, whereas SCAI gene is downregulated in both plasma and tissue samples of CRC patients. For miR-1290, the sensitivity was 96% and specificity was 100%, and for SCAI, 100% sensitivity and 88% specificity was calculated by ROC analysis.

The expression of miR-1290 and SCAI gene may be utilized as biomarkers for diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma.