The value of a group of serum miRNAs in screening prostate cancer

Abstract

Background Prostate cancer remains a worldwide public health problem that poses a serious threat to the health of men worldwide. Many studies have found that miRNA in serum has the possible to be a biomarker for cancer. Our study was conducted to investigate the valuation of serum miRNAs in prostate cancer screening. Methods We selected 12 miRNAs from past studies associated with prostate cancer. We checked the expression levels of these miRNAs in the serum of 112 prostate cancer patients and 112 healthy controls in a two-stage experiment. We plotted the receiver operating characteristic curve of miRNAs in the validation stage and constructed a four-miRNA panel with the highest diagnostic value using stepwise logistic regression. We also predicted the target genes for these four miRNAs through online databases and performed Gene Ontology functional annotation and pathway analysis. Results The results showed that 6 miRNAs (miR-429, miR-10a-5p, miR-183-5p, miR-181a-5p, miR-1231, miR-129-5p) were abnormally expressed in the serum of prostate cancer patients. We used four of these miRNAs including miR-1231, miR-10a-5p, miR-429 and miR-129-5p to construct a combination of miRNAs with high specificity and sensitivity in screening prostate cancer (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.878). Bioinformatic analysis has shown that the genes targeted by these miRNAs can be linked to the development of cancer. Conclusions Our study detected and identified a set of miRNAs that serve as screening markers for prostate cancer, which may assist in early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.