News
Research group led by Canoles Cancer Center investigator, Aurora Kerscher, Ph.D., has paper published in AACR journal.
Story Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2018 12:20:08 EST
A group led by Aurora Esquela Kerscher, PhD and her postdoctoral fellow Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, MD, PhD recently had a paper accepted for publication in the AACR journal Molecular Cancer Research entitled "Characterization and Evidence of the miR-888 Cluster as a Novel Cancer Network in Prostate". This paper describes our identification of the miR-888 cluster (composed of seven human miRNAs) as a novel noncoding RNA network elevated in EPS urine from high-grade PCa patients. In vitro assays revealed that the miR-888 cluster modulates PCa progression, i.e. proliferation, migration, invasion, colony formation. miR-888 and miR-891a were validated as oncogenes and accelerated tumor growth in mice. Our work provides insight into molecular mechanisms for aggressive PCa and indicates that members of the miR-888 cluster are promising diagnostic and therapeutic tools. They are dysregulated in cancers outside the prostate and thus could have wider clinical implications. Additional authors of this study include 4th year EVMS medical student Garrison Glavich, Biotechnology Master's graduate students Mary Pahuski and Aleena Short, Cancer Center members Drs. O. John Semmes, PhD & Lifang Yang, Ph.D. and Dr. Vitold Galkin, PhD in the Department of Physiological Sciences.