Figure 5. Identification of circulating miRNAs as novel biomarkers for detecting metastatic breast cancer.
(A) Heatmap of the circulating miRNA profiling analysis using purified RNAs from three lymph node positive (LN+) and three lymph node negative (LN−), as well as four normal control from age-matched healthy females. Three significantly upregulated circulating miRNAs (miR-20b, miR-106aand miR-16) and four downregulated circulating miRNAs (miR-671, miR-151-3p, miR-433 and miR-409-3p) in breast cancer were identified. (B) The method of plasma-based direct quantification of circulating miRNAs was applied to validate the miRNA signature in A, demonstrating significant upregulation of miR-106a in lymph node positive breast cancer patients compared with normal control.