title: Salivary microRNAs show potential as a noninvasive biomarker for detecting resectable pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Early surgery is vital in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, which is often fatal. However, there is currently no useful noninvasive biomarker to screen for pancreatic cancer. Studies have documented that many salivary molecules can be used to detect systemic diseases. We investigated whether salivary miRNAs are useful biomarkers for detecting resectable pancreatic cancer. Using an Agilent microarray, salivary miRNAs were profiled from saliva samples of 8 patients with resectable pancreatic cancer and 8 healthy controls. Candidate biomarkers identified in the profiles were subjected to validation using quantitative PCR and an independent sample set of 40 patients with pancreatic cancer, 20 with benign pancreatic tumors (BPT), and 40 healthy controls. The validated salivary miRNA biomarkers were evaluated within three discriminatory categories: pancreatic cancer versus healthy control, pancreatic cancer versus BPT, and pancreatic cancer versus noncancer (healthy control + BPT). miR-3679-5p showed significant downregulation in the pancreatic cancer group within the three categories (P = 0.008, 0.007, and 0.002, respectively), whereas miR-940 showed significant upregulation in pancreatic cancer (P = 0.006, 0.004, and 0.0001, respectively). Logistic regression models combining the two salivary miRNAs were able to distinguish resectable pancreatic cancer within the three categories, showing sensitivities of 72.5%, 62.5%, and 70.0% and specificities of 70.0%, 80.0%, and 70.0%, respectively. Salivary miR-3679-5p and miR-940 possess good discriminatory power to detect resectable pancreatic cancer, with reasonable specificity and sensitivity. This report provides a new method for the early detection of pancreatic cancer and other systemic diseases by assessing salivary miRNAs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China. Department of Gastroenterology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Zijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Graduate School, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Graduate School, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochip, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Xuchao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Physical Examination Center of East Ward, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Physical Examination Center of East Ward, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Pingyou
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China. zijunli2005@aliyun.com.
authors.forename: Zijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D012372:ROC Curve; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C000601549:MIRN3679 microRNA, human; C000594732:MIRN940 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs