Affiliations: [a]
Molecular Medicine Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran
| [b]
Biotechnology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
| [c]
Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
| [d]
Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Mohammad Shekari, Associate Professor of Human Molecular Genetic, Molecular Medicine Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran. Tel.: 0098-7633334275; Fax: 0098-7633331991. E-mail: mshekari_ch@yahoo.com
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Impaired miRNAs processing pathway is one interesting scenario for global downregulation of the miRNAome in various types of malignancy. We previously reported that DGCR8 and Dicer genes dysregulated in patients with breast cancer. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the expression pattern of Drosha in patients with breast cancer. METHODS:We evaluated the mRNA expression level of Drosha in 70 fresh breast carcinomas and adjacent non-neoplastic tissue using quantitative real-time PCR and assessed the possible correlation between its expression and clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS:Our results revealed that mRNA expression level of Drosha was decreased in tumors when compared to adjacent non-neoplastic tissue. However, this difference is not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Downregulation of Drosha is related to older age at diagnosis, higher histological grade, higher tumor size and metastasis. However, there was no significant correlation between Drosha expression level and clinicopathological parameters (P > 0.05). We found that Drosha expression negatively correlated with DGCR8 (P = 0.043), whereas dysregulated expression levels of Drosha and Dicer are positively correlated with to each other (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION:This study provides evidence that the expression of Drosha is impaired in breast cancer. However, the molecular basis of observed expression pattern have remained inexplicable and should be further investigated.
Keywords: MiRNA processing machinery, Drosha, DGCR8, Dicer, breast cancer
DOI: 10.3233/BD-170274
Journal: Breast Disease, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 55-62, 2017
