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World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2016; 22(33): 7389-7401
Published online Sep 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i33.7389
MicroRNA biomarkers predicting risk, initiation and progression of colorectal cancer
Kyungjin Lee, Lynnette R Ferguson
Kyungjin Lee, Medical Programme and Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics and Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, Faculty of Medical and Health Science, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
Lynnette R Ferguson, Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics and Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, Faculty of Medical and Health Science, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
Author contributions: Lee K and Ferguson LR contributed equally to this work; Lee K performed a critical literature search and wrote the initial drafts of the manuscript; Ferguson LR conceived of the study, mentored Lee K in literature searching and critical evaluation, wrote parts of the manuscript and assumed a major editing role.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Lynnette R Ferguson, Professor of Nutrition, Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics and Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, Faculty of Medical and Health Science, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. l.ferguson@auckland.ac.nz
Telephone: +64-9- 9236372 Fax: +64-9-3737502
Received: April 18, 2016
Peer-review started: April 19, 2016
First decision: May 12, 2016
Revised: June 10, 2016
Accepted: August 1, 2016
Article in press: August 1, 2016
Published online: September 7, 2016
Processing time: 138 Days and 23.7 Hours
Abstract

Colorectal cancer is a major global cause of morbidity and mortality. Current strategies employed to increase detection of early, curable stages of this disease are contributing to a reduction of the negative health impact from it. While there is a genetic component to the risk of disease, diet and environment are known to have major effects on the risk of an individual for developing the disease. However, there is the potential to reduce the impact of this disease further by preventing disease development. Biomarkers which can either predict the risk for or early stages of colorectal cancer could allow intervention at a time when prospects could be modified by environmental factors, including lifestyle and diet choices. Thus, such biomarkers could be used to identify high risk individuals who would benefit from lifestyle and dietary interventions to prevent this disease. This review will give an overview on one type of biomarker in the form of microRNAs, which have the potential to predict an individual’s risk for colorectal cancer, as well as providing a highly sensitive and non-invasive warning of disease presence and/or progression. MicroRNA biomarkers which have been studied and whose levels look promising for this purpose include MiR-18a, MiR-21, MiR-92a, MiR-135b, MiR-760, MiR-601. Not only have several individual microRNAs appeared promising as biomarkers, but panels of these may be even more useful. Furthermore, understanding dietary sources and ways of dietary modulation of these microRNAs might be fruitful in reducing the incidence and slowing the progression of colorectal cancer.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Epigenetics; Risk; Colorectal cancer; Predisposition; MicroRNA

Core tip: The requirements for colonoscopic technologies in order to detect early stages of colorectal cancer are being superseded by highly sensitive microRNA technologies using various body fluids. As well as providing early warnings of the disease, these also potentially provide a highly sensitive marker of dietary efficacy in disease prevention or slowing of disease progression.