Integrated Analysis of miRNA and mRNA Endorses a Twenty miRNAs Signature for Colorectal Carcinoma

Colorectal cancer (CRC) ranks as the most frequent carcinoma worldwide. CRC patients show strong prognostic differences and responses to treatment, and 20% have incurable metastatic disease at diagnosis. We considered it essential to investigate mechanisms that control cellular regulatory networks, such as the miRNA–mRNA interaction, known to be involved in cancer pathogenesis. We conducted a human miRNome analysis by TaqMan low density array, comparing CRC to normal colon tissue (NCT, and experimentally identified gene targets of miRNAs deregulated, by anti-correlation analysis, with the CRC whole-transcriptome profile obtained from RNASeq experiments. We identified an integrated signature of 20 deregulated miRNAs in CRC. Enrichment analyses of the gene targets controlled by these miRNAs brought to light 25 genes, members of pathways known to lead to cell growth and death (CCND1, NKD1, FZD3, MAD2L1, etc.), such as cell metabolism (ACSL6, PRPS1-2). A screening of prognosis-mediated miRNAs underlined that the overexpression of miR-224 promotes CRC metastasis, and is associated with high stage and poor survival. These findings suggest that the biology and progression of CRC depend on deregulation of multiple miRNAs that cause a complex dysfunction of cellular molecular networks. Our results have further established miRNA–mRNA interactions and defined multiple pathways involved in CRC pathogenesis.