Abstract
Globally, prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men and there is no biomarker for defining tumour invasion and progression. Guanosine-5′-triphosphate (GTP)-binding RAS-like 3 (ARHI) is a tumour suppressor gene that has been found to be downregulated in the prostate cancer cell line PC-3. MicroRNA 221 and 222 have been shown to regulate ARHI expression negatively. This study evaluated tissue samples from patients with prostate cancer (n = 35) that were designated as aggressive or non-aggressive according to their Gleason grade.
Expression of ARHI and microRNA 221 and 222 was measured by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The level of ARHI mRNA was significantly lower in aggressive compared with nonaggressive prostate cancer tissue samples.
In contrast, microRNA 221 and 222 levels were significantly higher in aggressive compared with non-aggressive prostate cancer tissue samples. Whether ARHI and microRNA 221 and 222 could be considered as biomarkers for disease progression in prostate cancer requires further investigation.