Expression of microRNAs and their gene targets are dysregulated in pre-invasive breast cancer (mRNA)

Introduction: microRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression and may play a causal role in invasive breast cancer. Since many genetic aberrations of invasive disease are detectable in earlier stages, we hypothesized that miRNA expression dysregulation and the predicted changes in gene expression would also be found in early breast neoplasias. Methods: Expression profiling of 365 miRNAs by RT-qPCR was combined with laser-capture microdissection to obtain an epithelial specific miRNA expression signature of normal breast epithelium (n=9) and of paired samples of histologically normal epithelium (HN) and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) (n=16). To determine how miRNAs may control the expression of co-dysregulated mRNAs we also performed gene expression microarray analysis in the same paired HN and DCIS samples and integrated this with miRNA-target prediction. We further validated several target pairs by modulating the expression levels of miRNAs in MCF7 cells and measured the expression of target mRNAs and proteins. Results: Thirty-five miRNAs were aberrantly expressed between RM, HN and DCIS. Twenty-nine miRNAs and 420 mRNAs were aberrantly expressed between HN and DCIS. Combining these two datasets with miRNA-target prediction we identified two established target pairs (miR-195:CCND1 and miR-21:NFIB) and tested several novel miRNA:mRNA target pairs. Over-expression of the putative tumor-suppressor miR-125b, under-expressed in DCIS, repressed the expression of MEMO1, which is required for ErbB2-driven cell motility (also a target of miR-125b); and NRIP1/RIP140, which modulates the transcriptional activity of the estrogen receptor. Knockdown of the putative oncogenic miRNAs miR-182 and miR-183, both highly over-expressed in DCIS, increased the expression of CBX7 (which regulates E-cadherin expression), DOK4, NMT2, and EGR1. Augmentation of CBX7 by knockdown of miR-182 expression, in turn, positively regulated the expression of E-cadherin, a key protein involved in maintaining normal epithelial cell morphology which is commonly lost during neoplastic progression. Conclusions: These data provide the first miRNA expression profile of normal breast epithelium and of pre-invasive breast carcinoma. Further, we demonstrate that altered miRNA expression can modulate gene expression changes that characterize these early cancers. We conclude that miRNA dysregulation likely plays a substantial role in early breast cancer development.

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Hannafon BN, Sebastiani P, de las Morenas A, Lu J, Rosenberg CL