MicroRNA Expression Profile Analysis Reveals Diagnostic Biomarker for Human Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer is a highly prevalent disease in older men of the western world. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) aresmall RNA molecules that regulate gene expression via posttranscriptional inhibition of protein synthesis. Toidentify the diagnostic potential of miRNAs in prostate cancer, we downloaded the miRNA expression profileof prostate cancer from the GEO database and analysed the differentially expressed miRNAs (DE-miRNAs)in prostate cancerous tissue compared to non-cancerous tissue. Then, the targets of these DE-miRNAs wereextracted from the database and mapped to the STRING and KEGG databases for network construction andpathway enrichment analysis. We identified a total of 16 miRNAs that showed a significant differential expressionin cancer samples. A total of 9 target genes corresponding to 3 DE-miRNAs were obtained. After network andpathway enrichment analysis, we finally demonstrated that miR-20 appears to play an important role in theregulation of prostate cancer onset. MiR-20 as single biomarker or in combination could be useful in the diagnosisof prostate cancer. We anticipate our study could provide the groundwork for further experiments.