Submitted by J. Hudson on Tue, 13/08/2024 - 14:57
Vet School researchers, Jenni Karttunen, Tim Williams and Andrew Grant have recently published a new paper in Scientific Reports which investigated the utility of urinary extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a source of microRNA based biomarkers for canine bladder cancer. The study was the first of its kind in dogs, and provided proof of concept that sufficient urinary EVs could be isolated from small volume canine urine samples to permit small RNA sequencing. Furthermore, the study identified 3 miRNAs; miR-182, miR-221 and miR-222 that were urine EV based biomarkers for canine bladder cancer (Figure 1).
Pathway enrichment analysis of the predicted targets of these microRNAs implicated the FoxO and the ErbB pathways, which regulate cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, apoptosis and cell motility by mediating the PI3K-Akt pathway, the MAPK pathway and the mTOR pathway. These data support reports that ErbB/MAPK signalling and the AKT-mTOR-S6K cascade could be therapeutic targets in canine bladder cancer that might be worthy of further investigation.
Schematic presentation of the EV isolation steps, and SEC fractions collected during purification. Transmission electron microscopy images of (B) Fraction B including EVs and (C) Fraction D including vesicle-free proteins. (D) Scatter plot of urinary EV numbers normalised to total creatinine content of sample (µmol). Dogs with UTI and UC had significantly higher numbers of urinary EV compared to dogs in the HC group: there was no significant difference between UC and UTI groups. *p < 0.05.
Reference:
miR-182, miR-221 and miR-222 are potential urinary extracellular vesicle biomarkers for canine urothelial carcinoma. Karttunen JM, Kalmar L, Grant AJ, Ying J, Stewart S, Wang X, Karet Frankl FE, Williams TL. Scientific Reports. (2024) 14: 17967.