Over the decades, survivals for breast cancer sufferers at early stages are lengthened [21]. Apart from timely diagnosis, adjuvant chemotherapy and endocrine therapy also considerably better cases’ overall survivals. There are two traditional indicators in diagnosing this malignancy, CA15.3 and CEA, and the previous studies have demonstrated sensitivity and specificity for them lie at 15-45% and 10-30%, separately. They are unsatisfactory for screening of breast cancer. Recently, miR-124-3p was reported to be generally reduced in multiple tumors while its transfection suppresses the malignant cellular growth and migration [22-25]. For example, Gov E et al. reported that miR-124-3p was a plausible indicator in ovarian cancer [22]. Yuan and colleagues demonstrated miR-124-3p expression down-regulated amid bladder cancer tissues and cell lines, which played important role on malignant cellular multiplication, emigration and apoptosis [23]. Moreover, in the study of Margolin-Miller Y and colleagues, high miR-124-3p degree held strong connection to shortened progression-free survivals among ependymoma patients, which might represent a self-sufficient indicator for prognoses in this disease [24]. Zhang and colleagues claimed miR-124-3p declined among breast cancer tissues and breast cell lines. Its declines promoted malignant cellular advancement primarily through elevating degree for autophapy relevant protein, Beclin-1 [25].
Currently, explorations on indicators wield essential functions in comprehending mechanisms for varied illnesses. Despite their employment in diagnosing breast cancer, CEA and CA15.3 merely possess insufficient sensitivity and specificity, especially for cases at early stages. MicroRNAs could generate pivotal influences on tumorigenesis. It has been revealed half of them seat at tumour-relevant genomic positions/fragile loci, which indicated their involvement in tumour origination and development [26]. Currently, miRNAs have great potential as novel biomarkers in diagnosing, therapeutic monitor, and predicting outcomes among breast cancer sufferers.
In this research, serum miR-124-3p degree dramatically reduced among breast cancer sufferers in comparison to controls. Moreover, we found that serum miR-124-3p degree possessed tight connection to clinical stage, histological grade, and lymph node metastasis, suggesting its involvement in breast cancer advancement and metastasis. Our findings were consistent with the previous studies [25]. ROC curve analyses confirmed serum miR-124-3p degree had a high sensitivity and specificity in discriminating between breast cancer sufferers and healthy persons, reaching high AUC values.
Multiple shortcomings of this research should be noted. Firstly, miR-124-3p might assume repressing effects against breast cancer, but potential mechanisms for such activities remained unknown. Future experiments are still necessary to ascertain unspecified influences for miR-124-3p and its aims in the malignancy onset and development. Another limitation is the relatively small size. Larger-scale researches would be indispensable to confirm efficacy for serum miR-124-3p expression to diagnose breast cancer for making more definitive conclusions.