Global gene expression profiling of human pleural mesotheliomas

The goal of our study was to molecularly dissect mesothelioma tumor pathways by mean of microarray technologies in order to identify new tumor biomarkers, that could be used as early diagnostic markers and possibly as specific molecular therapeutic targets. We performed Affymetrix U133A plus 2.0 microarray analysis comparing 9 human pleural mesotheliomas with 4 normal pleural specimen. Stringent statistical feature selection detected a set of differentially expressed genes that were further evaluated to identify potential biomarkers to be used in early diagnostics. Selected genes were confirmed by RT-PCR. As reported by other mesothelioma profiling studies, most of genes are involved in G2/M transition. Our list contains several genes previously described as prognostic classifier. Furthermore, we found novel genes never associated before to mesothelioma and could be involved in tumor progression. Notable, the identification of MMP-14, a member of matrix metalloproteinase family. This molecule has been described as a new disease marker and could be used as biomarker also for mesothelioma early diagnosis and prognosis and that can be viewed as new and effective therapeutic target to test. Accepted for pubblication in PLoS ONE 9 mesothelioma mixed type tumors versus the pleura of 4 normal donors were compared