Expression profile of miR-148a and miR-155 associated with apoptosis mechanism in pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) is present in 90% of pancreatic neoplasms. Risk factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity, among others, should be considered for the involvement of cancerous lesions. Most patients with PAat the time of diagnosis, have locally advanced disease or distant metastases. The resectability of the PA is generally less than 20% and the annual incidence rates are equivalent to those of mortality, which means a survival rate of less than 5% in five years. Studies show that PA presents a series of molecular alterations associated with its tumor malignancy, among the most studied, apoptosis stands out. Many studies also demonstrate the important role of microRNAs in the regulation of anti and pro-apoptotic targets. MicroRNAs are non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) consisting of 19 to 25 nucleotides, they are small endogenous molecules and act by controlling gene expression in several pathological processes, such as neurological degeneration, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory processes, diabetes, and cancer. The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of microRNAs miR-148a and miR-155 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. MiR-148a and miR-155 expression were analyzed in 10 samples from patients diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinoma from surgical resections and 5 control samples from healthy donors using the RT-PCR technique. Based on the results obtained in our study, we can conclude that although no statistically significant difference was observed between the groups, a lower expression of miR-148a and miR-155 (pro-apoptotic) can be observed in the PA group when compared to control group.