More than 50% of miRNA genes are located in cancer-associated genomic regions or in fragile sites, suggesting that miRNAs play an important role in the pathogenesis of cancer
[15]. MiR-483-5p is one of the most investigated miRNAs in ACCs, both as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker, and has been proven as the best single-gene malignancy marker
[16]. In the study of Chabre et al.
[17], miR-483-5p levels were undetectable in the blood of healthy controls, ACA and nonaggressive ACC patients, whereas high levels were detected in the serum of patients with aggressive ACC. In addition to circulating blood miR-483-5p, its urinary counterpart was evaluated in patients with adrenal tumors
[18]. However, no significant difference was detected between ACC and ACA urinary samples. The lack of significance between ACC and adrenal myelolipoma in the expression of both tissue and plasma miR-483-5p and miR-483-3p might represent a limitation in the use of these markers, though
[19].
The decrease in miR-483-5p blood levels after surgery in ACC patients suggests dynamic changes in serum miRNAs in response to surgical therapy
[17]. This decrease was confirmed by another study
[20] but did not reach statistical significance, probably due to the differences of sampling time in relation to the date of operation, as miRNAs deriving from the adrenal tumor before being removed may still be present in the bloodstream. Treatment-induced changes were also revealed for circulating miR-483-5p after systemic therapy in ACC patients
[21].
Several miRNAs that seemed to be useful as differentiators between ACCs and ACAs are also promising prognostic indicators of ACCs. The statistically significant upregulation of miR-483-5p, miR-503, miR-210 and miR-139-5p and the downregulation of miR-19 were associated with poor clinical outcome in ACCs in most of the studies. Biomarkers that could predict the biological behavior of these tumors are essential in clinical practice, as they could identify high-recurrence-risk patients that need more intensive monitoring or adjuvant therapies and identify low-recurrence-risk patients that could avoid potential morbid therapies. Indeed, high miR-210 levels were found to be associated with ACC aggressiveness and poor prognosis, affecting the OS of these patients similarly with well-established prognostic factors such as mitotic count, Ki-67 proliferation index and increased expression of SF-1
[22]. Moreover, some miRNAs have been found differentially expressed in ACC histological variants. Prominent underexpression of miR-483-5p, miR-483-3p and miR-210 levels in adrenal tissues has been observed in oncocytic compared to the classical and myxoid histotype of ACC
[22]. This interesting finding was interpreted through the prism of the positive correlation of the high levels of miRNA-210 expression with parameters of hypoxia, such as necrosis and GLUT-1, and aggressive biological behavior, such as mitotic rate and Ki-67 proliferation index, which are usually low in oncocytic tumors.
However, these results should be considered with great caution because the analysis of miRNAs expression, as well as its correlation with prognosis, differed among studies, either due to the different methodology used for molecular and/or statistical analysis. Several studies
[23][24][17][25][26] used Kaplan–Meier curves and the log-rank test to associate miRNA (low vs. high) levels with worse prognosis. Only three studies
[22][20][27] performed, in addition to the log-rank test, univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis, including, however, different prognostic parameters in their multivariate model. In particular, Duregon et al.
[22] included myxoid or classical ACC histotype (mitotic count ≥11, Ki-67 proliferation index ≥20) SF-1 protein expression and miR-210 and found that only mitotic count remains a significant prognostic factor. Salvianti et al.
[20] included age, sex and miR483-5p and found that miR483-5p was associated with recurrence-free survival. Finally, Oreglia et al.
[27] included tumor size, Ki67, ENSAT stage and miR-483-5p and found that miR483-5p was associated only with recurrence-free survival but not with OS. In addition, one study
[20] performed only Spearman correlation to analyze the correlation of miRNAs with distant metastases and disease progression.
Another point of issue is the different cut-offs used for the expression of miRNA levels among the different studies. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed to determine cut-off values in three studies
[20][17][27], and only two studies
[23][25] used the dichotomized relative to the median value to determine cut-off values. Three studies
[24][22][17] did not mention the cut-off value they used, whereas Agosta et al.
[26] used the same cut-off values with Chabre et al.
[17] study. Moreover, there was heterogeneity in the compared groups included in the ROC analyses. In particular, Chabre et al.
[17] compared ACC patients with aggressive tumors defined as recurring tumors or tumors that were already metastatic at diagnosis with patients with nonaggressive ACC tumors. Oreglia et al.
[27] divided patients with ACC into two groups: patients who showed a recurrence within 3 years (group R < 3 years) and patients who showed no recurrence during the first 3 years of follow-up. Salvianti et al.
[20] divided ACC patients based on low (stage 1/2) versus high (stage 3/4) disease stages. Furthermore, the studied population concerning ACC patients was heterogenous among studies. For example, Duregon et al.
[22] included also other than the classical histological types of ACC (oncocytic and myxoid), whereas Oreglia et al.
[27] performed analyses only on postsurgical blood samples of patients with ACC.
Finally, all studies used data of miRNA expression deriving from RT-PCR but one
[23], which used data from microarrays analysis. In the study of Ozata et al.
[24], only three out of six miRNAs were found to present a statistically significant prognostic role, and the microarray-based results were also validated by RT-PCR.
Across several studies, differences in the expression between tissue and blood miRNA levels were observed, suggesting that the predictive role of blood miRNAs may be independent of tissue specimens. A potential explanation for this finding could be that released miRNAs do not reflect completely the cellular profile, as some miRNAs are retained or released selectively in the blood circulation
[28].
Other components in the miRNA biogenesis pathway also seem to be useful as diagnostic and prognostic markers in adrenocortical tumors. Particularly, TARBP2, DICER and DROSHA miRNA-target genes are significantly overexpressed in ACCs when compared with adenomas and normal adrenal tissue samples
[29]. A weak DICER1 protein expression is associated with reduced disease-free and OS serving as a predictor of recurrence in ACCs
[30]. Furthermore, the top five upregulated target genes in ACCs, YWHAZ, GATA6, LDLR, BZW1 and IGFBP5, and five downregulated target genes, such as TXNIP, MAPKAPK5, PMAIP1, RAD51 and MICA, interact with several miRNAs
[31].
Thus, identifying the relationships between miRNA signatures and ACCs could help better understand the underlying mechanisms and help develop new therapeutic strategies. Overexpression of miRNAs can be triggered by using synthetic miRNA mimics. Conversely, overexpressed miRNAs can be silenced by antagomiRs to restore miRNA balance in cancer networks
[32]. For example, inhibition of miR-21 and miR-17-92 was associated with reduced tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis
[33]. Indeed, the therapeutic potential of the miR-122 antagonist, miravirsen, in the treatment of hepatitis C was evident from a multicentric phase II trial
[34]. Despite the great potential of miRNAs as novel therapeutic targets in the management of ACCs, there are a variety of technical challenges limiting the practical application of miRNA therapy in clinical practice, e.g., the availability of targeted delivery vesicles. Liposome delivery was the first delivery vehicle in clinical trials for miRNA
[11]. Liposomal delivery of chemotherapeutics has already been studied in xenograft models of adrenocortical tumors. A significant reduction in tumor size was detected in an ACC xenograft model after a single treatment with anti-IGF1 receptor (IGF1-R) immunoliposomes (SSLD-1H7)
[35]. Liposomally encapsulated miRNAs, in combination with cytostatic agents or alone, may represent a novel treatment option for ACC in the future.