THE INTEGRATIVE GENOMIC AND FUNCTIONAL IMMUNOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF COLORECTAL CANCER INITIATING CELLS TO MODULATE STEMNESS PROPERTIES AND THE SUSCEPTIBILIY TO IMMUNE RESPONSES [miRNA]

The nCounter technology (Nanostring Technology) was used for the characterization of the repertoire of miRNAs expressed in CICs (initiating cells) and FBS (differentiated tumor cell) colorectal cancer cell lines. The Nanostring miRNA panel V3 (including ~800 targets) was run on all samples. The class comparison of the profile of miRNAs in CRC-CIC vs. FBS tumor cells led to the identification of N=57 differentially expressed miRNAs (p≤0.05). Most of the miRNAs were found to be upregulated in CICs vs. FBS cell lines, including the N=11 top scored differentially expressed (p<0.02, miRNAs -299, -15a, -210, -196a, -362, -378d, -3144, -4461, -4488 and let-7d). Pathway Analysis performed on target genes for the miRNAs, showing their involvement in tumorigenic functions, such as cell cycle, migration, development and proliferation and the regulation of EMT. miRNA profiling of 20 CICs primary cell lines or Colorectal cancer initiating cells (CICs) cell lines and 3 FBS (Colorectal cancer differentiated tumor cell lines). We evaluated A differential gene expression profile of 800 miRNAs detected in CICs vs. FBS tumor cells using the nCounter technology (Nanostring Tech) we used the Nanostring miRNA panel V3 (including ~800 targets).