Detection of microRNA clusters associateci with prostate cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs of 22 nucleotides which normally function as negative regulators of target mRNA expression at the posttran-scriptional level. miRNAs play a role for one or more target genes by suppressing in processes as growth, differentiation, proliferation and cell death. Recent evidence has shown that miRNA mutations or mis-expression correlate with various human cancers and indicates that miRNAs can function as tumour suppressors and oncogenes. MicroRNAs have been shown to repress the expression of important cancer-related genes and might prove useful in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In this study, hierarchical microRNA clusters are obtained through microarray expression data in order to analyze the microRNA prostate cancer relationships. Clustering results are evaluated by their biological relevance. It is seen that such approach can be useful in detectitn relationships between microRNAs and diseases.