The miR-181b, miR-155 and miR-454 Expression in ctRNA in the Peripheral Blood Circulation of the Patients with Uveal Malignant Melanoma

Abstract

Abstract The Discovery of new non-invasive biomarkers in malignant melanoma is essential for the early diagnosis and follow-up of the disease. The aim of the study is to identify the expression levels of miR-181b and miR-155 and miR-454 in the ctRNA of serum/plasma samples of patients, and compare the differences with the healthy controls. The expression levels of miR-181b, miR-155, and miR-454 were examined and compared with the healthy controls on the cell-free RNA (ctRNA) extracted from the peripheral blood serum/plasma samples of the 72 uveal malignant melanoma patients, and 72 healthy individuals. The analysis showed that the expression level of the miR-181b has increased 9.25 fold, and expression level of miR-155 has increased 6.67 fold, and miR-454 expression level has increased 4.14 fold in the patient group compared with the levels in the control group. We found that the expression levels of the three miRNAs were statistically significant in patients compared with the expression levels in the healthy control group. The statistical evaluations between miRNA expression levels and clinical data showed that miR-155 had significant association with radiation therapy, and miR-454 showed a significant association with smoking and alcohol use. The significantly higher expression levels of miR-181b, miR-155 and miR-454 in plasma/serum RNAs in the peripheral bloodstream of uveal melanoma patients compared with the levels in the control group suggest that these molecules can be evaluated both as the drug targets for the early diagnosis and follow-up of the disease.