Evaluation of peripheral blood E2F3 mRNA as a potential diagnostic biomarker in human papillary thyroid cancer

Abstract

Background: The transcription factor E2F3 plays a vital role in regulating cell cycle progression and proliferation. In addition, many reports have shown that E2F3 exerts an oncogenic role in various cancers and is a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of some human cancers. However, the value of E2F3 in the molecular diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has rarely been reported. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical significance of E2F3 in the early diagnosis and monitoring of PTC.Materials and methods: Peripheral blood samples from 20 patients with PTC, 20 patients with benign thyroid lesions and 20 normal controls were collected. Peripheral blood E2F3 mRNA and thyroid sample E2F3 mRNA expression were detected by quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The expression of E2F3 protein in normal thyroid tissue and thyroid tissue from benign thyroid lesions and PTC were detected by immunohistochemistry. The optimal cut-off value for differentiating PTC was obtained by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.Results: E2F3 mRNA expression levels in peripheral blood and thyroid samples were significantly higher in PTC patients than in patients with benign thyroid lesions and normal subjects (P<0.05). Moreover, benign hyperplasia had higher E2F3 expression than normal tissue (P<0.01).There was no significant association between the level of E2F3 mRNA and aggressive clinicopathologic features of PTC, including TNM staging, extrathyroidal invasion, multifocality, and lymph node metastasis (P>0.05).With a cut-off value of 2.3, blood E2F3 mRNA showed 90% sensitivity, 60.9% specificity, a 70.5% positive predictive value, an 85.47% negative predictive value and 74.4% accuracy for discriminating PTC from benign hyperplasia disease of the thyroid and normal tissue. In addition, immunohistochemical results showed that E2F3 protein expression was also higher in the PTC group than in the other groups.Conclusions: The highest expression of E2F3 was found in peripheral blood and thyroid tissue of PTC patients. Moreover, blood E2F3 mRNA can be considered a promising diagnostic marker for discriminating PTC from benign thyroid diseases.

MiR-153-3p Suppresses Cell Proliferation, Invasion and Glycolysis of Thyroid Cancer Through Inhibiting E3F3 Expression

“…Moreover, E2F3 could form a dimer with cyclin D1 and participate in the regulation of the cell cycle, which is related to a variety of oncogenic and tumor suppressor genes. 24 In 2020, Zhao et al, 25 referred that the peripheral blood E2F3 could be regarded as a potential diagnostic biomarker for PTC. Vormbrock et al, 26 also confirmed that the absence of E2F3 promoted the development of medullary thyroid carcinomas (MTCs).…”