MicroRNAs as early diagnostic biomarkers for non‑small cell lung cancer (Review)

Abstract

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer-related death, with high incidence and mortality rate. Early diagnosis and treatment of LC are imperative to improve the 5-year survival rate for patients with LC. In recent years, miRNAs as promising biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity for LC have been studied increasingly. In LC regulatory networks, miRNAs play crucial roles in the occurrence, development and metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), such as oncogenic factors, tumor suppressors and regulators. Dysfunctional miRNAs perform tumor-suppressive or oncogenic functions in the regulation of cell proliferation, invasion, apoptosis, cell cycle disorder and angiogenesis by negatively regulating target genes. In the present review, the biological process of miRNAs was firstly summarized and recent advances in the mechanism of miRNAs involved in tumor formation and development were described. In addition, the present review concentrated on the latest findings on the miRNAs related with circulating free and extracellular vesicles in the early diagnosis of NSCLC. Additionally, the diagnostic performances of circulating free and extracellular vesicles-associated miRNAs in NSCLC were contrasted. Owing to the increased stability and wide-ranging practical applicability, miRNA may be one promising biomarker for NSCLC diagnosis.

Current research status of tumor cell biomarker detection

“…miRNAs are expressed in specific tissues and cell types and are expressed dynamically with different developmental or disease stages 112 . Due to low expression levels and complex environments, the sensitive detection of miRNAs in living cells requires multifunctional vectors with high transfection efficiency.…”

Ribonucleotide reductase regulatory subunit M2 (RRM2) as a potential sero-diagnostic biomarker in non-small cell lung cancer

“…However, the usage of exosomes is restricted in clinical diagnosis due to poor reproducibility and lack of standard quantification, purification, and storage protocols. Non-coding RNA has also recently been proposed for NSCLC diagnosis [13][14][15]. However, its use in clinical diagnosis is still in the preliminary stage, and more efforts are required in the future.…”

“…Unfortunately, traditional tumor markers, such as cytokeratin fragment 21-1 (CYFRA21-1), pro-gastrin-releasing peptide (ProGRP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and neuron-specific enolase (NSE), are limited in clinical use due to their poor sensitivity and specificity values [6][7][8]. Notably, several novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of NSCLC have been identified in recent years due to their higher sensitivity and specificity compared to traditional tumor markers, including exosomes [9,10], circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) [11,12], microRNAs [13], CircRNAs [14], and long non-coding RNA [15,16]. However, there are still many challenges associated with their widespread use in population screening, including restrictive detection technology, equipment complexity, and high testing costs.…”

A high-performance metabolomic diagnostic panel for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer detection based on UPLC‒MS/MS

“…However, due to the invasive nature of histopathological examination, detecting lung cancer tumour markers is an important way to achieve early diagnosis of lung cancer, and biomarker testing using body uids such as blood, urine, and saliva has become an important method for cancer diagnosis 4,5 . In recent years, markers such as DNA methylation 6,7 , circulating tumour DNA 8,9 , circulating tumour cells 10,11 , and microRNAs 12 have provided certain molecular biological information at an early stage to assist in the screening of earlystage lung cancer. Although the available markers show great potential, these high specimen requirements make clinical application di cult.…”