Expression signals of validated miRNAs that differentiated pancreato-biliary cancer from non-malignant abnormalities (A), or from cancers of other types (B).

A recent paper by Kojima, M. et al. has found a signature of miRNAs to identify patients with pancreato-biliary cancers who could benefit from surgical intervention.

Namely, a combination of eight miRNAs (miR-6075, miR-4294, miR-6880-5p, miR-6799-5p, miR-125a-3p, miR-4530, miR-6836-3p, and miR-4476) achieved a sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and AUC of 80.3%, 97.6%, 91.6% and 0.953, respectively.

In contrast, CA19-9 and CEA gave sensitivities of 65.6% and 40.0%, specificities of 92.9% and 88.6%, and accuracies of 82.1% and 71.8%, respectively, in the same test cohort. This diagnostic index identified 18/21 operable pancreatic cancers and 38/48 operable biliary-tract cancers in the entire cohort.

Heatmap of PBMCs miRNome from FM patients and controls. The microarray analysis was performed with Toray’s 3D-Gene Human miRNA Oligo chips (v.16.0; current version is v21.0). Patient samples are labeled (FM 1–11) and controls (C 1–10). Color palette is included to indicate signal intensity.

A recent paper by Cerdá-Olmedo, G. et al. unravels the miRNA signature in fibromyalgia (FM). Diagnosis of FM, a chronic musculoskeletal pain syndrome characterised by generalized body pain, hyperalgesia and other functional and emotional comorbidities, is a challenging process hindered by symptom heterogeneity and clinical overlap with other disorders. No objective diagnostic method exists at present.

This study aimed at identifying changes in miRNA expression profiles (miRNome) of FM patients for the development of a quantitative diagnostic method of FM. In addition, knowledge of FM patient miRNomes would lead to a deeper understanding of the etiology and/or symptom severity of this complex disease.

A broad profiling was first performed using Toray’s technology. miRNAs found were validated by qPCR in a later step. The profiling of FM patients PBMCs showed a marked downregulation of hsa-miR223-3p, hsa-miR451a, hsa-miR338-3p, hsa-miR143-3p, hsa-miR145-5p and hsa-miR-21-5p (4-fold or more).

Globally, 20% of the miRNAs analyzed (233/1212) showed downregulation of at least 2-fold in patients. This might indicate a general de-regulation of the miRNA synthetic pathway in FM. No significant correlations between miRNA inhibition and FM cardinal symptoms could be identified. However, the patient with the lowest score for mental fatigue coincided with the mildest inhibition in four of the five miRNAs associated with the FM-group.

Therefore, the authors propose a signature of five strikingly downregulated miRNAs (hsa-miR223-3p, hsa-miR451a, hsa-miR338-3p, hsa-miR143-3p and hsa-miR145-5p) to be used as biomarkers of FM. Validation in larger study groups would be required before the results can be transferred to the clinic, as the authors indicate.

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Correlation of findings in animal models (e.g. mouse) and its validation in human samples lies at the basis of Translational medicine. Nowadays, hypothesis established in mouse models must, at some stage, be validated in a cohort of patients.

“Toulouse may be the mRNA translation capital of France” declared third keynote speaker Jerry Pelletier at the symposium organized by Yvan Martineau, Stéphane Pyronnet et Julie Guillermet-Guibert of the CRCT ( Le Centre de recherche en Cancérologie de Toulouse) within the beautiful and modern Oncopole in Toulouse, France.