Circulating exosomal small RNAs are promising non‐invasive diagnostic biomarkers for gastric cancer

• Published in: Journal of cellular and molecular medicine Vol. 24; no. 24; pp. 14502 - 14513
• Main Authors: Ge, Lichen, Zhang, Nan, Li, Dandan, Wu, Yingmin, Wang, Hongsheng, Wang, Junjun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.12.2020; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Antigens; Biomarkers; Biomarkers, Tumor; Carcinoembryonic antigen; Chemical Fractionation; Circulating MicroRNA; Diagnosis; Exosomes; Exosomes - metabolism; Exosomes - ultrastructure; Female; Gastric cancer; Gene expression; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans; Invasiveness; Liquid Biopsy - methods; Male; Metastases; MicroRNAs; MicroRNAs - blood; MicroRNAs - genetics; miRNA; Nanoparticles; Non-coding RNA; Original; P elements; PIWI‐interacting RNAs; Plasma; Pore size; Proteins; Reproducibility of Results; Reverse transcription; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA, Small Interfering - blood; RNA, Small Interfering - genetics; ROC Curve; Sensitivity and Specificity; serum exosomes; Software; Stomach Neoplasms - blood; Stomach Neoplasms - diagnosis; Stomach Neoplasms - genetics; Transcriptomes; China; PIWI-interacting RNAs; diagnosis; gastric cancer; non-coding RNA; serum exosomes
• ISSN: 1582-1838; 1582-4934; 1582-4934
• DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.16077

Dysregulation of small non‐coding RNA (ncRNA) is associated with various human diseases including cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the circulating exosomal small RNAs including microRNAs (miRNAs) and P‑element‑induced wimpy testis (PIWI)‐interacting RNAs (piRNAs) as sensitive and specific non‐invasive biomarkers for gastric cancer (GC) diagnosis. Serum exosomal small RNA transcriptome was examined using unique molecular identifiers (UMI) small RNA sequencing. Dysregulated miRNAs and piRNAs were verified in 70 GC patients and 60 healthy controls (HC) by reverse transcription quantitative PCR. The expressions of miR‐1307‐3p, piR‐019308, piR‐004918 and piR‐018569 in serum exosomes were significantly increased in GC group as compared to those in HC group. Moreover, GC patients with metastasis had significantly higher expression levels of piR‐004918 and piR‐019308 than GC patients without metastasis. The area under the curve (AUC) for miR‐1307‐3p, piR‐019308, piR‐004918 and piR‐018569 in the GC group was 0.845, 0.820, 0.754 and 0.732, respectively. The combination of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 199 can improve the AUC of miR‐1307‐3p to 0.902 and piR‐019308 to 0.914 for GC diagnosis. In conclusion, our findings indicate that serum exosomal piRNAs are promising non‐invasive diagnostic biomarkers for GC patients and potential markers for monitoring metastasis.