title: A six-microRNA signature in plasma was identified as a potential biomarker in diagnosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: The differential expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) in plasma of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients may serve as a diagnostic biomarker. A four-stage study was conducted to identify plasma miRNAs with potential in detecting ESCC. Exiqon panels (2 ESCC pools vs. 1 normal control (NC) pool) were applied in the screening phase to obtain miRNA profiles. The identified miRNAs were further evaluated through training (36 ESCC VS. 42 NCs) and testing stages (101 ESCC VS. 113 NCs) with qRT-PCR assays. A six-miRNA signature including up-regulated miR-106a, miR-18a, miR-20b, miR-486-5p, miR-584 and down-regulated miR-223-3p in ESCC was identified. The signature could accurately discriminate ESCC patients from NCs with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.935, 0.959 and 0.966 for the training, testing and the additional validation stage (41 ESCC VS. 50 NCs), respectively. MiR-106a and miR-584 were significantly up-regulated in tumor tissues with qRT-PCR assays. And miR-584 was also up-regulated in ESCC tissues from TCGA database. In addition, exosomal miR-223-3p and miR-584 were consistently dysregulated with those in plasma and could also act as biomarkers in diagnosis of ESCC. In conclusion, we identified a six-miRNA signature in plasma which could act as a non-invasive biomarker in detection of ESCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Nanjing 210009, PR China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Zebo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Huo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines and Department of Pharmacognosy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Lian-Wen
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiration, The Affiliated Jiangning Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, PR China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Tongshan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Wenfang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou 213003, China.
authors.forename: Danxia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.|Cancer Center of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Yongqian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, PR China.|Cancer Center of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D000077277:Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood*; D011379:Prognosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: TCGA; diagnosis; esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; exosomes; miRNA