Poster abstracts

Poster number 56 submitted by Kavleen Sikand

Activity of miRNAs in prostate carcinoma cells

Kavleen Sikand (BGES, Cleveland State University), Jinani Slaibi (BGES, Cleveland State University), Neha Aggarwal (BGES, Cleveland State University), Girish Shukla (BGES, Cleveland State University)

Abstract:
The discovery of noncoding microRNAs (miRNAs) has opened up new opportunities to study RNA mediated processes to understand the detailed molecular biology of cancer. Aberrant expression of miRNAs has been correlated in various leukemias and cancers including lung, thyroid and colorectal cancer. In addition, microarray based expression analyses revealed the aberrant expression of a number of miRNAs in solid prostate tumors. Unfortunately, microarray based expression analyses are not adequate to demonstrate molecular mechanisms that are mediated by miRNAs in cancers. Function of miRNAs and their activities in prostate cancer is still an unexplored research area. We are investigating the expression and role of miRNA clusters in various cell culture models of prostate carcinoma. These clusters are aberrantly expressed in prostate carcinoma cells. We are investigating the overexpression of two miRNAs from an oncogene miRNA cluster 17-92 on chromosome 13. We also found that at least one miRNA, a member of 106-92 cluster on X-chromosome, is highly upregulated in response to hormone in prostate carcinoma cells LNCaP. Surprisingly, not all miRNAs that are encoded in a cluster are expressed suggesting the possibility of additional post-transcriptional mechanisms in miRNA cluster expression. The long term goal of this work is to investigate if a link exists between the expression patterns of miRNAs and the transition of prostate cancer to fatal androgen independent stage.

Keywords: miRNA, prostate cancer