Abstract
BackgroundThe present study aimed to identify a specific circular RNA (circRNA) for early diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC).MethodsTotally 82 patients with GC, 30 with chronic nonatrophic gastritis and 30 with chronic atrophic gastritis were included in this study. Four of the 82 GC patients were selected for screening. Total RNA from malignant and adjacent tissue samples was extracted, and circRNAs in four patients were screened. According to the screening results, the eight most upregulated and downregulated circRNAs with a statistically significant association with GC were identified by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Then, the most regulated circRNA was selected for further sensitivity and specificity assessments. CircRNA expression was examined by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR in 78 GC (21 and 57 early and advanced GC, respectively) and adjacent tissue samples, as well as in gastric fluid samples from 30 patients with chronic nonatrophic gastritis, 30 with chronic atrophic gastritis, and 78 GC.ResultsA total of 445 circRNAs, including 69 upregulated and 376 downregulated circRNAs, showed significantly altered expression in GC tissue samples. Hsa_circ_000780 was significantly downregulated in 80.77% of GC tissue samples, with levels in GC tissue samples correlating with tumor size, tumor stage, T stage, venous invasion, carcinoembryonic antigen amounts, and carbohydrate antigen 19–9 levels. Strikingly, this circRNA was found in the gastric fluid of patients with early and advanced GC.ConclusionsThe present study uncovered a new circRNA expression profile in human GC, with hsa_circ_000780 significantly downregulated in GC tissue and gastric fluid specimens. These findings indicate that hsa_circ_000780 should be considered a novel biomarker for early GC screening.
Highlights
The present study aimed to identify a specific circular RNA for early diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC)
445 circular RNA (circRNA) were aberrantly expressed with statistical significance (P < 0.05 and fold change (FC) > 2.0) between the GC and paired noncancerous tissues
The circRNA microarray results in the present study revealed a new circRNA expression profile in human GC, and the differentially expressed circRNAs detected above showed a significant difference compared with those reported in other studies [26, 34]
Summary
The present study aimed to identify a specific circular RNA (circRNA) for early diagnosis of gastric cancer (GC). As GC is difficult to diagnose in the early stage, it is crucial to develop a noninvasive molecular diagnostic tool for GC detection [2]. Robust advances in human genome sequencing, epigenetics, circular RNA (circRNA) assessment tools, and other molecular biological techniques have enabled the search for molecular diagnostic targets for GC. Gene molecular targets are widely distributed in the human body (blood, urine, feces, and various body fluids); the samples are obtainable, and the detection technology is mature. Among the various methods for studying gene mutations, circRNAs are a promising target for the molecular diagnosis of GC [4,5,6,7,8,9]
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