Whole blood miRNA expression signatures as predictors of neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in triple-negative breast cancer

Background Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive malignancy distinguished by resistance to standard breast cancer therapies. The absence of reliable prognostic tools hinders the ability to predict therapeutic response, resulting in some patients receiving treatment that is ineffective yet physically exhausting. miRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression, and their dysregulated profiles in liquid biopsies hold immense potential as minimally invasive biomarkers for monitoring treatment response. Results In this study, we seek to identify miRNAs that may serve as predictive biomarkers for therapeutic responses in patients diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. To achieve this, an in silico analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset is conducted to narrow the list of candidate miRNAs. miRNAs with potential involvement in TNBC were selected for clinical validation in whole-blood samples of TNBC patients before and after therapy. The RT-qPCR-based expression analysis revealed significant predictive potential of miR-340-5p , miR-1307-3p , miR-185-5p , and miR-30a-3p . Conclusions Our study identified that dysregulated miRNA signatures can serve as independent indicators for therapeutic monitoring. Notably, the combined multi-miRNA expression panel offers a robust, superior predictive value for stratifying treatment response and tracking disease progression in TNBC patients.