Hsa-miR-21 and Hsa-miR-29 in Tissue as Potential Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers for Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Background/Aims: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Endoscopic examination is the most used method to detect the GC nowadays, whereas this method is expensive and invasive. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of recently discovered small non-protein-coding RNAs. They regulate the expression of hundreds of target genes; thereby control a wide range of tumorigenic processes. In this study, we selected two miRNAs, hsa-miR-21 and hsa-miR-29, as the targets to assess their diagnostic and prognostic value for GC. Methods: A total of 50 GC patients including 24 females and 26 males were recruited. Tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissue samples were collected from all these participants during the endoscopic examination. RNAs were extracted from these samples, then quantified via qRT-PCR and normalized with RNU43 as the internal control. Statistical analyses were conducted using the GraphPad Prism 5.0. Results: We discovered a higher expression of hsa-miR-21 and a relatively lower expression of hsa-miR-29hsa-miR-29 in the tumor tissue than in the adjacent non-tumor tissue. Moreover, both the two miRNAs showed moderate diagnostic performance (hsa-miR-21: AUC = 0.75, sensitivity = 0.70, specificity = 0.78; hsa-miR-29hsa-miR-29: AUC = 0.73, sensitivity = 0.70, specificity = 0.68). In the follow-up research, we found that higher tissue hsa-miR-21 level was related to a lower overall survival rate, whereas higher tissue hsa-miR-29hsa-miR-29 level was associated with the higher overall survival rate. These results indicated that both hsa-miR-21 and hsa-miR-29 had the potential to be the biomarkers for GC prognosis. Conclusion: In summary, we verified the diagnostic and prognostic value of tissue hsa-miR-21hsa-miR-21 and hsa-miR-29 in GC. Both of them can be potentially applied as novel and non-invasive biomarkers for GC.