Skip to main content

Expression Profiling of microRNAs in Cancer Cells: Technical Considerations

  • Protocol
Genomics Protocols

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology™ ((MIMB,volume 439))

  • 2243 Accesses

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a class of small, noncoding RNAs. These small RNAs are involved in diverse biological processes, and it has been predicted that about one third of human messenger RNAs (mRNAs) appear to be miRNA targets, underlying the major influence of miRNAs on almost all cellular pathways. Deviation from the normal pattern of miRNA expression has been implicated in several diseases. Among human diseases, it has been shown that changes in miRNA expression correlate with various human cancers. Thus, miRNA profiling could contribute to more precise tumor classification and better prediction of the therapeutic outcome. This chapter summarizes these recent findings and highlights the technical advances in miRNA probe preparation, miRNA expression profiling and target identification.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. 1. Bartel DP (2004) MicroRNAs: Genomics, biogenesis, mechanism, and function. Cell 116:281–297

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. 2. Bentwich I, Avniel A, Karov Y, Aharonov R, Gilad S, Barad O, Barzilai A, Einat P, Einav U, Meiri E et al (2005) Identification of hundreds of conserved and nonconserved human microRNAs. Nat Genet 37:766–770

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. 3. Berezikov E, Guryev V, van de Belt J, Wienholds E, Plasterk RH, Cuppen E (2005) Phylogenetic shadowing and computational identification of human microRNA genes. Cell 120:21–24

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. 4. Lewis BP, Burge CB, Bartel DP (2005) Conserved seed pairing, often flanked by adenosines, indicates that thousands of human genes are microRNA targets. Cell 120:15–20

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. 5. Krek A, Grun D, Poy MN, Wolf R, Rosenberg L, Epstein EJ, MacMenamin P, da Piedade I, Gunsalus KC, Stoffel,M et al (2005) Combinatorial microRNA target predictions. Nat. Genet. 37:495–500

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. 6. Chen, CZ, Li L, Lodish HF, Bartel DP (2004) MicroRNAs modulate hematopoietic lineage differentiation. Science 303:83–86

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. 7. Esau C, Kang X, Peralta E, Hanson E, Marcusson EG, Ravichandran LV, Sun Y, Koo S, Perera RJ, Jain R et al (2004) MicroRNA-143 regulates adipocyte differentiation. J Biol Chem 279:52361–52365

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. 8. Poy MN, Eliasson L, Krutzfeldt J, Kuwajima S, Ma X, Macdonald PE, Pfeffer S, Tuschl T, Rajewsky N, Rorsman P et al (2004) A pancreatic islet-specific microRNA regulates insulin secretion. Nature 432:226–230

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. 9. Giraldez AJ, Cinalli RM, Glasner ME, Enright AJ, Thomson JM, Baskerville S, Hammond SM, Bartel DP, Schier AF (2005) MicroRNAs regulate brain morphogenesis in zebrafish. Science 308: 833–838

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. 10. Zhao Y, Samal E, Srivastava D (2005) Serum response factor regulates a muscle-specific microRNA that targets Hand2 during cardiogenesis. Nature 436:214–220

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. 11. Ambros V (2004) The functions of animal microRNAs. Nature 431:350–355

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. 12. Wienholds E, Koudijs MJ, van Eeden FJ, Cuppen E, Plasterk RH (2003) The microRNA-producing enzyme Dicer1 is essential for zebrafish development. Nat Genet 35:217–218

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. 13. Bernstein E, Kim SY, Carmell MA, Murchison EP, Alcorn H, Li MZ, Mills AA, Elledge SJ, Anderson KV, Hannon GJ (2003) Dicer is essential for mouse development. Nat Genet 35:215–217

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. 14. Lim LP, Lau NC, Garrett-Engele P, Grimson A, Schelter JM, Castle J, Bartel DP, Linsley PS, Johnson JM (2005) Microarray analysis shows that some microRNAs downregulate large numbers of target mRNAs. Nature 433: 769–773

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. 15. Suh MR, Lee Y, Kim JY, Kim SK, Moon SH, Lee JY, Cha KY, Chung HM, Yoon HS, Moon SY et al (2004) Human embryonic stem cells express a unique set of microRNAs. Dev Biol 270”488–498

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. 16. Houbaviy HB, Murray MF, Sharp PA (2003) Embryonic stem cell-specific MicroRNAs. Dev Cell 5:351–358

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. 17. Hatfield SD, Shcherbata HR, Fischer KA, Nakahara K, Carthew RW, Ruohola-Baker H (2005) Stem cell division is regulated by the microRNA pathway. Nature 435:974–978

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. 18. Lu J, Getz G, Miska EA, Alvarez-Saavedra E, Lamb J, Peck D, Sweet-Cordero A, Ebert BL, Mak RH, Ferrando AA et al (2005) MicroRNA expression profiles classify human cancers. Nature 435:834–838

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. 19. Calin GA, Liu CG, Sevignani C, Ferracin M, Felli N, Dumitru CD, Shimizu M, Cimmino A, Zupo S, Dono M et al (2004) MicroRNA profiling reveals distinct signatures in B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemias. Proc Natl Acad.Sci USA 101:11755–11760

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. 20. Calin GA, Dumitru CD, Shimizu M, Bichi R, Zupo S, Noch E, Aldler H, Rattan S, Keating M, Rai K et al (2002) Frequent deletions and down-regulation of micro-RNA genes miR15 and miR16 at 13q14 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:15524–15529

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. 21. Takamizawa J, Konishi H, Yanagisawa K, Tomida S, Osada H, Endoh H, Harano T, Yatabe Y, Nagino M, Nimura Y et al (2004) Reduced expression of the let-7 microRNAs in human lung cancers in association with shortened postoperative survival. Cancer Res 64:3753–3756

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. 22. Johnson SM, Grosshans H, Shingara J, Byrom M, Jarvis R, Cheng,A, Labourier E, Reinert KL, Brown D, Slack FJ (2005) RAS is regulated by the let-7 microRNA family. Cell 120:635–647

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. 23. Michael MZ, O'Connor SM, van Holst Pellekaan NG, Young GP, James RJ (2003) Reduced accumulation of specific microRNAs in colorectal neoplasia. Mol. Cancer Res 1:882–891

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. 24. Iorio MV, Ferracin M, Liu CG, Veronese A, Spizzo R, Sabbioni S, Magri E, Pedriali M, Fabbri M, Campiglio M et al (2005) MicroRNA gene expression deregulation in human breast cancer. Cancer Res 65:7065–7070

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. 25. Eis PS, Tam W, Sun L, Chadburn A, Li Z, Gomez MF, Lund E, Dahlberg JE (2005) Accumulation of miR-155 and BIC RNA in human B cell lymphomas. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:3627–3632

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. 26. Liu CG, Calin GA, Meloon B, Gamliel N, Sevignani C, Ferracin M, Dumitru CD, Shimizu M, Zupo S, Dono M et al (2004) An oligonucleotide microchip for genome-wide microRNA profiling in human and mouse tissues. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:9740–9744

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. 27. Nelson PT, Baldwin DA, Scearce LM, Oberholtzer JC, Tobias JW, Mourelatos Z (2004) Microarray-based, high-throughput gene expression profiling of microRNAs. Nat Methods 1:155–161

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. 28. Calin GA, Sevignani C, Dumitru CD, Hyslop T, Noch E, Yendamuri S, Shimizu M, Rattan S, Bullrich F, Negrini M et al (2004) Human microRNA genes are frequently located at fragile sites and genomic regions involved in cancers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:2999–3004

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. 29. Sioud M, Rosok O (2005) High-throughput analysis of microRNA gene expression using sensitive probes. Methods Mol Biol 309:311–320

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. 30. Sioud M, Rosok O (2004) Profiling microRNA expression using sensitive cDNA probes and filter arrays. Biotechniques 37:574–576, 578–580

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. 31. Southern EM (1975) Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Molec Biol 98:503–517

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. 32. Schena M, Shalon D, Davis RW, Brown, PO (1995) Quantitative monitoring of gene expression patterns with a complementary DNA microarray. Science 270:467–470

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. 33. Babak T, Zhang W, Morris, Q, Blencowe BJ, Hughes TR (2004) Probing microRNAs with microarrays: Tissue specificity and functional inference. RNA 10:1813–1819

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. 34. Esquela-Kerscher A, Slack FJ (2006) Oncomirs—micrornas with a role in cancer. Nat Rev Cancer 6:259–269

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. 35. Cimmino A, Calin GA, Fabbri M, Iorio MV, Ferracin M, Shimizu M, Wojcik SE, Aqeilan RI, Zupo S, Dono M et al (2005) miR-15 and miR-16 induce apoptosis by targeting BCL2. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:13944–13949

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Goff LA, Yang M, Bowers J, Getts RC, Padgett RW, Hart RP (2005) Rational probe optimization and enhanced detection strategy for microRNAs using microarrays. RNA Biol. 2

    Google Scholar 

  37. 37. Wiegant JC, van Gijlswijk RP, Heetebrij RJ, Bezrookove V, Raap AK, Tanke HJ (1999) ULS: A versatile method of labeling nucleic acids for FISH based on a monofunctional reaction of cisplatin derivatives with guanine moieties. Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics 87:47–52

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. 38. Kiriakidou M, Nelson PT, Kouranov A, Fitziev P, Bouyioukos C, Mourelatos Z, Hatzigeorgiou A (2004) A combined computational-experimental approach predicts human microRNA targets. Genes Dev 18:1165–1178

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. 39. Lewis BP, Shih IH, Jones-Rhoades MW, Bartel DP, Burge CB (2003) Prediction of mammalian microRNA targets. Cell 115:787–798

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Anne Dybwad for her critical reading of the manuscript and Dr. Øystein Røsok for technical help. This work is supported in part by Helse Sør. The miRNA arrays were provided by the Norwegian Microarray Consortium at the Norwegian Radium Hospital.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Sioud, M., Cekaite, L. (2008). Expression Profiling of microRNAs in Cancer Cells: Technical Considerations. In: Starkey, M., Elaswarapu, R. (eds) Genomics Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 439. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-188-8_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-188-8_12

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-871-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-188-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics