Circulating miR-16-5p, miR-92a-3p, and miR-451a in plasma from lung cancer patients: potential application in early detection and a regulatory role in tumorigenesis pathways.

Micro(mi)RNAs, potent gene expression regulators associated with tumorigenesis, are stable, abundant circulating molecules,that are detectable in plasma. Thus, miRNAs could potentially be useful in early lung cancer detection.We aimed to identify circulating miRNA signatures in plasma from patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), and to verify whether miRNAs regulate pathways of lung oncogenesis. RNA isolated from 139 plasma samples (40 LUAD;38 LUSC;61 healthy/non-diseased individuals) were divided into discovery (38 patients; 7 controls including 21 samples, for expression quantification usingan 800-miRNA panel; NanostringnCounter®)and validation (40 patients; 40 controls; TaqMan®RT-qPCR)cohorts. Elastic net, Maximizing-R-Square Analysis (MARSA), and C-Statistics were applied for miRNA signature identification.