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Objectives: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract with high incidence and mortality worldwide. Studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in CRC. Our purpose is to investigate the potential of serum Linc01836 as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in CRC. Methods: We evaluated the expression of Linc01836 via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The serum CEA, CA19-9, Cyfra21-1, and CA72-4 concentrations were measured by Architect I4000 SR. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to estimate the diagnostic value in CRC. Relationship between serum Linc01836 expression and clinicopathological characteristics of CRC cases was analyzed via chi-square test. The underlying mechanism of Linc01836 on the development and prognosis in CRC was predicted by bioinformatic analysis. Results: The method of qRT-PCR for Linc01836 detection was confirmed with high precision and specificity. Serum Linc01836 expression in CRC patients was significantly higher than that in healthy donors (p < 0.0001) and benign patients (p < 0.0001), and declined after resection (p < 0.01). High expression of Linc01836 was associated with histological stage (p = 0.002) and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.006). In addition, serum Linc01836 could effectively differentiate CRC patients from the healthy folks, with favorable area under the curve (AUC) of 0.809 (95% CI: 0.757–0.861, p < 0.001). What is more, the combination of serum Linc01836, CEA, and Cyfra21-1 could improve diagnostic sensitivity (92.0%). Linc01836 was averagely located in the nucleus and cytoplasm, suggesting that it might participate in CRC progression and prognosis through the crosstalk among lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs. Conclusion: Linc01836 may serve as a valuable noninvasive biomarker for population screening, early detection, and clinical surveillance of CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common cancers in the world. Due to the lack of specific symptoms, more than 80% of patients are diagnosed as the advanced stage with a high mortality rate, so the early diagnosis of GC is incredibly essential. Circular RNAs (CircRNAs) are a kind of endogenous non-coding RNA with stable structure, the long half-life, and tumor specificity. It can be used as a diagnostic marker for tumors. Method: Using circRNA sequencing technology screened three pairs of GC and adjacent tissues, and circRNAs with significant expression differences were screened out. The circular structure and characteristics of circPTPN22 were determined by RT-qPCR, agarose gel electrophoresis, Sanger sequencing, RNase R, and actinomycin D assays. Cell Counting Kit‐8, colony formation, Transwell, Wound healing, tumor formation in mice and western blotting assays were used to detect the effects of circPTPN22 on the proliferation, invasion, migration, tumor growth of GC cells in vitro and protein expression. Result: CircPTPN22 is up-regulated and positively correlated with metastasis in GC tissues, cells, and plasma. RT-qPCR results showed that circPTPN22 had good diagnostic efficacy and could be used to predict the prognosis of GC patients. In vitro and vivo experiments showed that the downregulation of circPTPN22 could inhibit cell proliferation, migration, and invasion through the epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) pathway. CircPTPN22 may regulate GC progression through the competitive binding of miRNAs. Conclusion: CircPTPN22 can be used as a potential diagnostic and prognostic marker for GC and can inhibit cell proliferation and metastasis through the competitive binding of miRNA to inhibit the EMT pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To explore microRNA-574-3p expression in serum of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and investigate correlations between serum microRNA-574-3p expression and the development and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Design and methods Serum samples were collected from 70 patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma, 40 patients with cirrhosis and 45 healthy controls. Serum microRNA-574-3p expression levels were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The linearity, specificity and reproducibility were evaluated. In addition, the diagnostic value of microRNA-574-3p and its correlations with clinicopathologic features were assessed. Results The relative expression of microRNA-574-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma patients, cirrhosis patients and healthy controls was 2.306 (1.801-3.130), 1.362 (0.994-1.665) and 1.263 (0.765-1.723), respectively, indicating that it was significantly higher in hepatocellular carcinoma patients than that in the other two groups ( U = 439.5, 514.5, both P < 0.0001) and was significantly correlated with hepatitis B virus DNA copies ( U = 383.0, P = 0.018). In hepatitis B virus-positive hepatocellular carcinoma patients, the relative expression of microRNA-574-3p was significantly correlated with hepatitis B virus DNA concentration ( r = 0.348, P = 0.022). Compared with healthy control group, AUCROC of serum microRNA-574-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma group was 0.837 with 95% CI: 0.763-0.910. Combining microRNA-574-3p, AFU and alpha-fetoprotein together, the sensitivity was highest compared with other markers alone or combined. Conclusions The relative expression of serum microRNA-574-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma patients was significantly higher than that in cirrhosis patients and healthy controls, and it may be an important biomarker in the auxiliary diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple myeloma (MM), accounting for ∼1% of all types of human cancer and 13% of all hematological malignancies, is characterized by the malignant proliferation of monoclonal plasma cells (PCs) in the bone marrow. MM leads to end stage organ impairment, including bone lesions, renal dysfunction, hypercalcemia and anemia. So far, the specific pathogenesis of MM remains unclear and no early-stage sensitive biomarker of MM has been well characterized. Furthermore, treating MM is difficult, as the majority of patients eventually relapse or become refractory following treatment using presently available methods. To date, a number of studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) may serve crucial functions in the progression of numerous cancers, including MM. During the tumorigenesis and pathogenesis of MM, there are multiple carcinogenic events that involve the pernicious transformation from normal to malignant PCs. miRNAs, as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, regulate MM progression-related signaling pathways. In the present review, the up-to-date preliminary basic studies and associated clinical works on the underlying mechanisms of aberrant miRNA profiling in MM have been summarized, including an evaluation of its value as a potential biomarker and a novel therapeutic strategy for MM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore serum miR-135a-5p expression in colorectal cancer and examine the potential usefulness of this molecule as a biomarker for diagnosis in colorectal cancer. Methods Serum samples were collected from 60 patients with primary colorectal cancer, 40 patients with colorectal polyps and 50 healthy controls. Serum miR-135a-5p expression levels were detected by reverse transcription quantitative real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Serum carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 199 concentrations were detected by MODULAR ANALYTICS E170. Results The relative expression level of serum miR-135a-5p in colorectal cancer patients, colorectal polyps patients and healthy controls was 2.451 (1.107, 4.413), 0.946 (0.401, 1.942) and 0.949 (0.194, 1.415), respectively, indicating that it was significantly higher in colorectal cancer patients than that in the other two groups ( U = 351.0, 313.0, both P < 0.001). Additionally, it was significantly correlated with different degrees of tumour differentiation ( U = 215.0, P = 0.029) and different tumour stages ( U = 202.0, P = 0.013). There was no significant correlation between the relative expression of serum miR-135a-5p and carcinoembryonic antigen ( r2 = 0.023, P = 0.293) or carbohydrate antigen 199 ( r2 = 0.067, P = 0.068) in colorectal cancer patients. Compared with colorectal polyps group, AUCROC of serum miR-135a-5p in colorectal cancer group was 0.832 with 95% CI 0.73-0.93; compared with healthy control group, AUCROC was 0.875 with 95% CI 0.80-0.95. Conclusion Serum miR-135a-5p expression in colorectal cancer patients was higher than that in patients with colorectal polyps and healthy controls, suggesting that serum miR-135a-5p may prove to be an important biomarker for auxiliary diagnosis of colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant tumors. In the present study, the expression profile of human multistage colorectal mucosa tissues, including healthy, adenoma, and adenocarcinoma samples was downloaded to identify critical genes and potential drugs in CRC. Methods: Expression profiles, GSE33113 and GSE44076, were integrated using bioinformatics methods. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed by R language. Functional enrichment analyses of the DEGs were performed using the Database for Annotation, visualization, and integrated discovery (DAVID) database. Then, the search tool for the retrieval of interacting genes (STRING) database and Cytoscape were used to construct a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and identify hub genes. Subsequently, survival analysis was performed among the key genes using Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). Connectivity Map (CMap) was used to query potential drugs for CRC. Results: A total of 428 upregulated genes and 751 downregulated genes in CRC were identified. The functional changes of these DEGs were mainly associated with cell cycle, oocyte meiosis, DNA replication, p53 signaling pathway, and progesterone‐mediated oocyte maturation. A PPI network was identified by STRING with 482 nodes and 2,368 edges. Survival analysis revealed that high mRNA expression of AURKA, CCNB1, CCNF, and EXO1 was significantly associated with longer overall survival. Moreover, CMap predicted a panel of small molecules as possible adjuvant drugs to treat CRC. Conclusion: Our study found key dysregulated genes involved in CRC and potential drugs to combat it, which may provide novel insights and potential biomarkers for prognosis, as well as providing new CRC treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing evidence indicates that two long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), FEZ family zinc finger 1 antisense RNA 1 (FEZF1-AS1) and Actin filament associated protein 1 antisenseRNA1 (AFAP1-AS1), are highly expressed in different cancers, including gastric cancer (GC). However, the expression pattern and clinical utility of these two lncRNAs are still unknown. Serum expression levels of FEZF1-AS1 andAFAP1-AS1 were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). CEA and CA19-9 were detected by ARCHITET I2000 SR. Analyses were all performed using SPSS software version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Detection of serum FEZF1-AS1 and AFAP1-AS1 showed both of them were up-regulated in GC patients compared with the normal controls (p < 0.0001), and high serum expression levels were correlated with tumor size, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and lymph node metastasis. Besides, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) demonstrated the two lncRNAs had higher diagnostic utility than CEA and CA19-9. Furthermore, when combined the two lncRNAs as a model, it yielded an AUC of 0.866, and the combination of the model, CEA and CA19-9 could observably improve diagnostic sensitivity to 95.5 %. What's more, circulating FEZF1-AS1 and AFAP1-AS1 were significantly decreased after the GC patients underwent the operation (both p < 0.001). Our study indicated that serum FEZF1-AS1 and AFAP1-AS1 had better sensitivity and efficiency for the diagnosis of GC and the combination of the two lncRNAs might be used as a potential prognostic indicator in GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]