Table 4. List of common miRNA biomarkers for esophageal cancer.
| Name | Expression | Mechanism | Biomarker potency | Study setting | Detection method | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| miR-21 | ↑ (126,127) | Target the key proteins of the PTEN/PI3K/AKT signal pathway (128) | (i), (ii), (iii) (126-128) | Serum (126), tumor (127,128) (a) | RT-qPCR (128), Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA 1.0 Array (127) | (126-128) |
| miR-18a | ↑ (129) | Regulate the PTEN-PI3K-AKT-mTOR signal axis, incerase the expression of cylin D1 in ESCC (130) | (i), (ii) (collaborate with miR-21 will get higher sensitivity and better effect) (129,131) | Serum (129), tumor (129-131) (a, b) | RT-PCR (129), RT-qPCR (130,131), IHC (131), WB (131), Tumor formation study | (129-131) |
| miR-17/20a | ↑ | Inhibit Tβ-β / integrin β6 subunit pathway by targeting TβR2 and Smad anchor receptor activation and degradation in ESCC | (i), (ii) | cell lines, mice (a, b) | qPCR, IHC, Tumor formation study, | (132) |
| mi R-203 | ↑ (133) | MiR-203 targets MAP3K1, thereby inhibiting cell proliferation and invasion (134) | (ii), (iv) (135) | Tumor (a) | RT-qPCR (133), WB (134), Dual-luciferase reporter assay (134) | (133-135) |
| miR-1290 | ↑ (136) | Target NFIX (137) | (iv) (138) | Serum (a) | miRNA microarray | (136-138) |
| mi R-145 | ↓ (139) | Target SMAD5, promote cell proliferation and migration/invasion (140) | (ii), (iii) (141) | Tumor, cell, mice (a, b) | RT-qPCR, WB, IHC, Luciferase reporter assay | (139-141) |
| miR-143 | ↓ (142) | MAPK7 pathway (143) | (iii) | Tumor (a) | RT-qPCR | (142,143) |
| miR-122 | ↓ | Target and down-regulate PKM2 to inhibit the proliferation of esophageal carcinoma cells | (iii) | Cell (a) | Bioinformatics analysis, RT-qPCR, WB | (144) |
| miR-133b | ↓ (145) | Down-regulate the expression of EGFR in ESCC to inhibit MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathway (146) | (i), (ii) | Tumor, cell, mice (a, b) | RT-qPCR (145), WB (146), Tumor formation study, | (145,146) |
↑, represents up-regulated gene expression in tumor tissue; ↓, represents down-regulated gene expression in tumor tissue; (i), diagnostic; (ii), prognostic; (iii), therapeutic; (iv), metastasis monitoring. RT-qPCR, real-time quantitative PCR; WB, western blot; RT-PCR, reverse transcription PCR; ESCC, esophageal squamous cell cancer.