Expression and clinical significance of serum long non-coding RNA antisense noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus splice variant in gastric cancer patients

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) antisense noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus splice variant (ANRIL) in the serum of gastric cancer patients and its clinical significance. Methods A total of 90 patients with gastric cancer and 90 healthy subjects were studied. We extracted serum total RNA from two groups, and then detected the serum levels of ANRIL in patients with gastric cancer and healthy subjects by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR) method. The difference of serum ANRIL expression between gastric cancer patients and healthy volunteers and the relationship between the expression level of ANRIL in serum and clinicopathological features of gastric cancer patients further investigated. Results The results showed that the expression level of serum ANRIL in the relative healthy volunteers was significantly higher than that in the gastric cancer group (P=0.000). The receiver operating characteristic curve of ANRIL showed that serum ANRIL had good sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of gastric cancer (0.83 under the curve). Further analysis showed that in patients with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ, the expression level of ANRIL was higher, and the difference was statistically significant (P values were 0.028, 0.001 and 0.035, respectively). However, the expression of serum ANRIL was not significantly correlated with sex, age, diameter, tissue differentiation and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in gastric cancer patients (P values were 0.514, 0.763, 0.691, 0.617 and 0.076, respectively). Conclusion Detection of serum lncRNA ANRIL may assist in the diagnosis of gastric cancer. Key words: Stomach neoplasm; Tumor marker; Long non-coding RNA; Antisense noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus splice variant; Sensitivity; Specificity