microRNA expression signature associated with lymphatic dissemination in locally advanced prostate cancer

Background: Prostate cancer is one of the most common and socially significant cancers in men. The aim of our study was to reveal changes in miRNA expression profiles associated with lymphatic dissemination in prostate cancer and to identify the most prominent miRNAs as potential prognostic markers for future studies.Methods. High-throughput miRNA sequencing was performed for 48 prostate cancer specimens taken from Russian patients, with and without lymphatic dissemination (N1 and N0).Results: We found at least 18 microRNAs with differential expression between N0 and N1 sample groups: miR-182-5p, -183-5p, -96-5p, -25-3p, -93-5p, -7-5p, -615-3p, -10b, -1248 (N1-miRs; elevated expression in N1 cohort; p < 0.05); miR-1271-5p, -184, -222-3p, -221-5p, -221-3p, -455-3p, -143-5p, -181c-3p and -455-5p (N0-miRs; elevated expression in N0; p < 0.05). The expression levels of N1-miRs were highly correlated between each other (the same is applied for N0-miRs) and anti-correlated between N0-miRs and N1-miRs. The samples can be divided into two groups depending on the expression ratio between N0-miRs and N1-miRs.Conclusions: We found the miRNA expression signature associated with lymphatic dissemination, in particular on the Russian patient cohort. Many of these miRNAs are well-known players in oncogenic transformation or tumor suppression. Further experimental studies with extended sampling are required to validate these results.