Plasma MicroRNA alterations between EGFR-activating mutational NSCLC patients with and without primary resistance to TKI

The aim of the present study was to examine differentially expressed miRNAs in plasma between EGFR-TKIs sensitive and EGFR-TKIs primary resistance patients. MiRNA microarray of plasma from patients’ blood identified 16 differentially expressed miRNAs of which 15 (hsv2-miR-H19, hsa-miR-744-5p, hsa-miR-3196, hsa-miR-3153, hsa-miR-4791, hsa-miR-4803, hsa-miR-4796-3p, hsa-miR-372-5p, hsa-miR-138-2-3p, hsa-miR-16-1-3p, hsa-miR-1469, hsa-miR-585-3p, ebv-miR-BART14-5p, hsa-miR-769-3p, hsa-miR-548aq-5p) were down regulated while only hsa-miR-503-3p was up regulated in primary resistant patients’ plasma. Volcano plot and hierarchical clustering were performed to examine the accuracy of the miRNAs. Then validation with quantitative real-time PCR was performed and the result was in accordance with the array data. Functional analysis of these differentially expressed miRNAs with Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) revealed a common signaling network including MYC, CCND1, IGF1 and RELA.