adriann.hovey@zoetis.com
Mentor: Kimberly Leslie, M.D.
Lab Room: 3234 MERF
Lab Phone: 319-335-8212

Development of miR-888 as a Potential Biomarker for Aggressive Endometrial Carcinomas

Initially we identified miR-888 arrays as highly over-expressed in endometrial cancers through Taqman Low Density qPCR-based. Upon individual qPCR validations, we observed that miR-888 was specifically and significantly over-expressed in endometrial carcinosarcomas, a very aggressive form of endometrial cancer. The expression of miR-888 also negatively correlated with the age of onset of endometrial cancers. Therefore, we hypothesize that miR-888 may be playing a functional role in endometrial carcinogenesis and could serve as a potential biomarker for aggressive endometrial carcinomas. Currently I am working on identifying and validating potential targets of miR-888 and characterizing the phenotypic effects of miR-888 over-expression. In addition, I am working on isolating RNA from exosomes obtained from endometrial cancer patient serum. This RNA will be used to quantitate the levels of miR-888 and evaluate the potential of miR-888 as a biomarker for aggressive endometrial carcinomas.

Publications:

Devor EJ, Hovey AM, Goodheart MJ, Ramachandran S, Leslie KK. microRNA expression profiling of endometrial endometrioid adenocarcinomas and serous adenocarcinomas reveals profiles containing shared, unique and differentiating groups of microRNAs. Oncol Rep. 2011 Oct;26(4):995-1002. doi:10.3892/or.2011.1372. Epub 2011 Jul 1. PubMed PMID: 21725615.

Abstracts:

Hovey AM, Devor EJ, Leslie KK. MiR-888: A newly identified miRNA significantly over-expressed in endometrial cancers. MicroRNAs and Non-Coding RNAs and Cancer Conference. Banff, Canada, 2011.