Meta-analysis of the differentially expressed microRNA profiles in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

// Junwen Luan 1 , Junfu Wang 1 , Qinghong Su 1 , Xuemei Chen 2 , Guosheng Jiang 1 , Xiaoqun Xu 1 1 Institute of Basic Medicine, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, Shandong 250062, China 2 Department of Otolaryngology, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250033, China Correspondence to: Xiaoqun Xu, e-mail: xuxiaoqunsd@163.com Guosheng Jiang, e-mail: jiangguosh@163.com Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, miRNA, profiling, roubust rank aggregation method, meta-analysis Received: July 02, 2015 Accepted: January 01, 2016 Published: January 25, 2016 ABSTRACT MicroRNAs(miRNAs), as non-coding molecules, were proved to be correlated with gene expression in naspharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) development. In this research, a comprehensive meta-analysis of eight independent miRNA expression studies in NPC was preformed by using robust rank aggregation method (RRA), which contained a total of 775 tumor and 227 non-cancerous samples. There were 7 significant dysregulated miRNAs identified including three increased (miR-483–5p, miR-29c-3p and miR-205–5p) and four decreased (miR-29b-3p, let-7d-5p, miR-100– 5p and let-7g-5p) miRNAs. Subsequently, the miRNA target prediction and pathway enrichment analysis were carried out to find out the biological and functional relevant genes involved in the meta-signature miRNA regulation. Finally, several signaling and cancer pathogenesis pathways were suggested to be more frequently associated with the progression of NPC. In this research the meta-signature miRNA identified may be used to develop a series of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for NPC that serve specificity for use in clinics.