Project description:Background. Colorectal cancer develops through two main genetic instability pathways characterized by distinct pathologic features and clinical outcome. Results. We investigated colon cancer samples (23 characterized by microsatellite stability, MSS, and 16 by high microsatellite instability, MSI-H) for genome-wide expression of microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA. Based on combined miRNA and mRNA gene expression, a molecular signature consisting of twenty seven differentially expressed genes, inclusive of 8 miRNAs, could correctly distinguish MSI-H versus MSS colon cancer samples. Among the differentially expressed miRNAs, various members of the oncogenic miR-17-92 family were significantly up-regulated in MSS cancers. The majority of protein coding genes were also up-regulated in MSS cancers. Their functional classification revealed that they were most frequently associated with cell cycle, DNA replication, recombination, repair, gastrointestinal disease and immune response. Conclusions. This is the first report that indicates the existence of differences in miRNA expression between MSS versus MSI-H colorectal cancers. In addition, the work suggests that the combination of mRNA/miRNA expression signatures may represent a general approach for improving bio-molecular classification of human cancer.
Project description:Colorectal cancer is a heterogeneous disease molecularly characterized by inherent genomic instabilities, chromosome instability and microsatellite instability. In the present study we propose transcriptome instability as an analogue to genomic instability on the transcriptome level. Exon microarray data from two independent series of altoghether 160 colorectal cancer tissue samples was used for global alternative splicing detection using the FIRMA algorithm (aroma.affymetrix). The sample-wise amounts of these alternative splicing scores exceeding a defined threshold (deviating exon usage amounts) were summarized to provide the basis for description of transcriptome instability. This characteristic was shown to be associated with splicing factor expression levels and patient survival in both independent sample series. We analyzed genome-wide expression at the exon-level for two independent series of colorectal cancer tissue biopsies using the Affymetrix Human Exon 1.0 ST platform. This series of samples represents the validation series.
Project description:Colorectal cancer is a heterogeneous disease molecularly characterized by inherent genomic instabilities, chromosome instability and microsatellite instability. In the present study we propose transcriptome instability as an analogue to genomic instability on the transcriptome level. Exon microarray data from two independent series of altoghether 160 colorectal cancer tissue samples was used for global alternative splicing detection using the FIRMA algorithm (aroma.affymetrix). The sample-wise amounts of these alternative splicing scores exceeding a defined threshold (deviating exon usage amounts) were summarized to provide the basis for description of transcriptome instability. This characteristic was shown to be associated with splicing factor expression levels and patient survival in both independent sample series. We analyzed genome-wide expression at the exon-level for two independent series of colorectal cancer tissue biopsies using the Affymetrix Human Exon 1.0 ST platform. This series of samples represents the test series.
Project description:Microsatellite instability (MSI), caused by defective mismatch repair, is observed in a subset of colorectal cancers (CRCs). We evaluated somatic mutations in microsatellite repeats of genes chosen based on reduced expression in MSI CRC and existence of a coding mononucleotide repeat. Expression profiling of 34 MSI colorectal cancers and 15 normal colonic mucosas was performed in 2002. Comparison of malignant and healthy tissue.