Ascites extracellular vesicle microRNA profiles of platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma

Ovarian cancer is one of the leading causes of death in females in the world. High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is the most common histological subtype, and the platinum-resistance is a clinical challenge. HGSOC frequently spreads to the peritoneal cavity and causes carcinomatous peritonitis. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bilayer nanoparticles containing various bioactive molecules. Thus, EVs mediate cell-to-cell communication and contribute to cancer progression. Moreover, EVs stably exist in the body fluid, including serum and ascites. This study investigated the ascites EV miRNA profiles of platinum-resistant and platinum-sensitive HGSOC. Archival fresh frozen ascites samples at the Hyogo Prefectural Cancer Center Biobank were used for analysis. Ascites-derived EVs were purified using the ultracentrifuge, and total RNA was extracted. Then, small RNA libraries were prepared using the NEBNext Multiplex Small RNA Library Prep Set for Illumina (New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA). Finally, single-end reads were performed on the Illumina NextSeq.