Determining the mechanistic and therapeutic roles of microRNAs in bladder cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：微小RNA（miRNA）是~22个核苷酸的非编码RNA，通常通过不完全结合靶mRNA的3 'UTR抑制基因，导致翻译抑制和mRNA不稳定。 已经在许多癌症中观察到miRNA失调，并且许多miRNA不仅参与癌症的起始和进展，而且可能具有治疗潜力，因为它们靶向肿瘤抑制基因或癌基因。 膀胱癌通常表现为移行细胞癌（TCC），是美国第五大常见癌症。 miRNA表达谱的初步结果表明，miRNA的错误表达在TCC肿瘤发生中具有严重的后果，并且一些miRNA可能是肿瘤抑制因子或癌基因。 我们的研究还表明，一些沉默的肿瘤抑制miRNAs可以通过表观遗传治疗重新激活。 此外，我们已经开发了一种灵活的平台，使用CMV启动子从单个工程化转录物恢复多个肿瘤抑制miRNA的表达。 这种新的表达载体可以通过靶向多个致癌基因或致癌通路来抑制肿瘤细胞生长。 在本研究中，基于我们强有力的初步结果，我们计划集中于：1）鉴定用于膀胱癌患者诊断和预后目的的特异性miRNAs; 2）通过表观遗传学治疗重新激活沉默的肿瘤抑制miRNAs; 3）描述miRNAs在肿瘤发生和再分化过程中的作用，用多miRNA表达载体在癌细胞中表达鉴定的肿瘤抑制miRNA。 这些特定目标的完成将为使用miRNAs作为膀胱癌患者的诊断和/或预后标志物以及作为治疗靶点的临床应用提供重要的一步。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): microRNAs (miRNAs) are ~22 nucleotide non-coding RNAs that usually repress genes by imperfectly binding to the 3'UTR of the target mRNA which causes translational repression and mRNA destabilization. miRNA dysregulation has been observed in many cancers and many miRNAs are not only involved in the initiation and progression of cancer but may have therapeutic potential because they target tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes. Bladder cancer, which usually presents as transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), is the fifth most common cancer in the United States. Preliminary results from miRNA profiling indicate that miRNA misexpression has severe consequences in TCC tumorigenesis and some miRNAs may be tumor suppressors or oncogenes. Our study also shows that some silenced tumor suppressor miRNAs can be reactivated by epigenetic treatment. Furthermore, we have developed a flexible platform using the CMV promoter to restore expression of multiple tumor suppressor miRNAs from a single engineered transcript. This novel expression vector can inhibit tumor cell growth by targeting multiple oncogenes or oncogenic pathways. In this proposal, based on our strong preliminary results, we plan to focus on: 1) identifying specific miRNAs for diagnostic and prognostic purposes for bladder cancer patients; 2) reactivating silenced tumor suppressor miRNAs by epigenetic treatment; 3) characterizing the role of miRNAs during tumorigenesis and re-expressing identified tumor suppressor miRNAs in cancer cells with a multiple miRNA expression vector. Completion of these specific aims will provide an important step towards the clinical application of using miRNAs as diagnostic and/or prognostic markers and as therapeutic targets in bladder cancer patients.