Down Regulated Expression Levels of miR-27b and miR-451a as a Potential Biomarker for Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing TAC Chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with poor prognosis, aggressive phenotype(s) of tumours, partial chemotherapy response, and lack of clinically proven therapies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can target and modulate key genes that are involved in TNBC chemotherapy. Deregulated miRNA expression is highly involved in anti-cancer drug resistance phenotype and thus, miRNAs tend to be promising candidates for prediction of chemotherapy response and recurrence. AIM: This study aimed to investigate the expression levels of selected miRNAs (miR-21, miR-27b, miR-34a, miR-182, miR-200c and miR-451a) in cancerous and normal adjacent tissues of TNBC patients and to correlate with the clinicopathological data. METHODS: Forty-one (41) FFPE tissue block of histopathologically confirmed TNBC patients was collected. Total RNA from the cancerous and adjacent non-cancerous tissues were isolated, transcribed, and pre-amplified. The relative expression level of miRNAs in tumour and normal adjacent tissues of TNBC patients was analysed using qRT-PCR. Results: Out of six miRNAs studied, the relative expression of miR-27b and miR-451a were found to be significantly lower in cancerous as compared to normal adjacent tissues of TNBC patients. In addition, a significant down regulation of miR-451a was also observed in infiltrating ductal carcinoma subtype, stages I and II, in both grade II and III, premenopausal and postmenopausal as well as in those with positive axillary lymph node metastases. CONCLUSION: The results suggest the possible utilization of miR-27b and miR-451a expression levels as potential predictive risk markers for TNBC patients undergoing TAC chemotherapy.