Affiliations: Molecular Oncology and New Therapies Group, Department
of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Virgen del Rocío, Instituto de
Biomedicina de Sevilla, Seville, Spain | Respiratory Disease Medical and Chirurgical Unit,
University Hospital Virgen del Rocío, Seville, Spain | Molecular Biology of Cancer Group, Instituto de
Biomedicina de Sevilla, Seville, Spain | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
Note: [] Corresponding author: Luis Paz-Ares, MD, PhD, Service of Medical
Oncology Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Manuel Siurot s/n. 41013
Seville, Spain. Tel.: +34 955 013414; Fax: +34 955 013 292; E-mail:
luis.pazares.sspa@juntadeandalucia.es
Abstract: The identification of new less invasive biomarkers is necessary to
improve the detection and prognostic outcome of respiratory pathological
processes. The measurement of miRNA expression through less invasive techniques
such as plasma and serum have been suggested to analysis of several lung
malignancies including lung cancer. These studies are assuming a common
deregulated miRNA expression both in blood and lung tissue. The present study
aimed to obtain miRNA representative signatures both in plasma and
bronchoalveolar cell fraction that could serve as biomarker in respiratory
diseases. Ten patients were evaluated to assess the expression levels of 381
miRNAs. We found that around 50% miRNAs were no detected in both plasma and
bronchoalveolar cell fraction and only 20% of miRNAs showed similar
expression in both samples. These results show a lack of association of miRNA
signatures between plasma and bronchoalveolar cytology in the same patient. The
profiles are not comparable; however, there is a similarity in the relative
expression in a very small subset of miRNAs (miR-17, miR-19b, miR-195 and
miR-20b) between both biological samples in all patients. This finding supports
that the miRNAs profiles obtained from different biological samples have to be
carefully validated to link with respiratory diseases.
