Team:SFLS Shenzhen/Description

Project Description







Background

Breast cancer is the most common female malignancy in the world. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the number of new cases of breast cancer in the world reached 1.38 million in 2008, and that is 22.9% of all female malignancies; 460,000 women died of breast cancer, which is 13.7% of all female malignant tumor deaths, and 1.7% of all female deaths [1] According to statistics, the annual incidence of female breast cancer in China is 169,000, which is the second most common malignant tumor in women; the death of female breast cancer in China is about 45,000; it is the sixth most common cause of malignant tumor death in women [2] The occurrence and development of breast cancer involves many factors, and the change of gene level expression is the most important regulatory factor [3]. In recent years, breast cancer has become a growing threat to people, and many well-known celebrities have died of breast cancer, which has also aggravated people’s panic about this type of cancer.

Beina Yao, a Chinese pop singer, was born in Wuhan, Hubei, in September 26, 1981. At 16:55 January 16, 2015, Yao died due to relapsed of breast cancer in Peking University of Shenzhen Hospital, and she was only 33 years old. This incident caused great sensation in China.

miR-155 and miR-10b are two miRNAs that have high expression in human serum when a person has developed early forms of breast cancer in their tissues.Based on the high expression level in breast cancer patients’ serum and the high specificity, miRNA-155 and miRNA-10b will act as biomarkers (the alarm of breast cancer)in our project

What we are doing

 Our project is to use miRNA——miRNA155 and miRNA10b——in human serum as biomarkers to detect early forms of breast cancer.Based on the high expression level in breast cancer patients’ serum and the high specificity,miRNA-155 and miRNA-10b will act as biomarkers (the alarm of breast cancer)in our project while Toehold switches are used for the detection of miRNA.We designed an AND gate to detect both types of miRNAs at the same time.When both types of miRNAs express at a high level,our artificial biosystem will produce GFP. The greater amount RNA express, the higher its fluorescence density is. We can use mathematics modal to calculate the expression level through the fluorescence intensity, thus enables the early diagnosis of the breast cancer by using serum albumin.

Beina Yao, Chinese pop singer

Beina Yao, Chinese pop singer

References
  1. FERLAY J, SHIN H R, BRAY F, et al. GLOBOCAN 2008v1.2, Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide: IARCCancer Base No. 10 [Internet]. Lyon, France: InternationalAgency for Research on Cancer; 2010[EB/OL]. http://globocan.iarc.fr, accessed on 10/05/2013.
  2. 张敏璐, 黄哲宙, 郑莹. 中国2008年女性乳腺癌发病、死亡和患病情况的估计及预测[J]. 中华流行病学杂志,2012, 33(10): 1049-1051.
  3. WangY,ZhangH,ChenY,etal.LSD1isasubunitoftheNuRDcomplexandtargetsthemetastasispro-grams in breastcancer[J].Cell,2009,138(4):660-672.
  4. 俞进友 仇建玲 朱正峰 周迎 谷文龙。miR-10b、miR145及miR155在乳腺癌患中的表达及临床意义【J】.贵州医药,2016,40(7);683-685
  5. Toehold Switches——De-Novo-Designed Regulators of Gene Expression