Gastric juice MicroRNAs as potential biomarkers for the screening of gastric cancer

Abstract

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a crucial role in carcinogenesis; however, it largely remains unclear whether miRNAs in gastric juice, which is specific for gastric tissues, can be used as biomarkers for gastric cancer. The objective of the current study was to investigate the feasibility of using gastric juice miRNAs as potential biomarkers to assist in screening for gastric cancer. METHODS: Gastric juice samples were collected from 141 patients who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy examination between September 2010 and December 2011. Gastric cancer and adjacent normal biopsy specimens also were collected. The existence and stability of miRNAs in gastric juices were determined by real-time reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RTqPCR) and sequencing. miRNA levels in tissues and gastric juices were detected by RT-qPCR. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed for differentiating gastric cancer from benign gastric diseases. RESULTS: Levels of miRNA-21 (miR-21) and miR-106a in gastric cancer tissues were significantly higher compared with the levels in adjacent tissues (P ¼ .006 and P ¼ .001, respectively). Patients who had gastric cancer had significantly different levels of gastric juice miR-21 and miR-106a compared with patients who had benign gastric diseases (both P < .001). There were significant correlations between miR-21/miR-106a levels and Borrmann types. miR-21 levels in intestinal type gastric cancer specimens were higher than that in diffuse (P ¼ .003) or mixed (P < .001) gastric cancer types. The area under the ROC curve was up to 0.969 for miR-21 and 0.871 for miR-106a. CONCLUSIONS:The current results indicated that certain miRNAs in gastric juice are potential biomarkers that can assist in screening for gastric cancer.

Macrophage-secreted Exosomes Delivering miRNA-21 Inhibitor can Regulate BGC-823 Cell Proliferation

“…MiR-21 expression in gastric cancer tissues is significantly higher than in adjacent tissues. Moreover, gastric cancer patients have significantly altered levels of gastric juice miR-21 compared with patients with benign gastric diseases, indicating that miR-21 is a potentially useful biomarker for gastric cancer screening (Cui et al, 2013).…”

Downregulation of miR-129-2 by promoter hypermethylation regulates breast cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis

“…For miR-129-1 and miR-129-2, their 5'-prime product, miR-129-5p, is the same. However, their 3'-prime products are different, which are named miR-129-1-3p and miR-129-2-3p, respectively (6,7). Dysregulation of miR-129-2 is frequently detected in solid tumors (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13).…”

Gastric Juice MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers for Screening Gastric Cancer: A Systematic Review

“…We found only four studies dealing with GC miRs in GJ (6)(7)(8)(9). All of them came from China: three were from the city of Ningbo (6)(7)(8) and one from Yangzhou (9).…”

“…All of them came from China: three were from the city of Ningbo (6)(7)(8) and one from Yangzhou (9). miR-421, miR-129, miR-21, miR-106a and miR-133a were the five microRNAs studied.…”

“…In their subsequent work, the group from Ningbo discovered that both miR-21 and miR-106a were less expressed in GJ of 42 patients with GC than in 99 patients with benign gastric diseases (p<0.001 for both molecules) (8). Moreover, both GJ microRNAs were associated significantly with GC stage (p<0.001 for both analytes) and the level of miR-21 in the intestinal GC type was higher than in the diffuse (p=0.003) or mixed (p<0.001) histological types.…”