Peripheral blood circular RNA circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in pancreatic cancer / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To clarify the clinical significance, diagnostic and prognostic values of circular RNA circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 in peripheral blood of pancreatic cancer, and analyze their impact on the biological function of pancreatic cancer cells.Methods:The peripheral blood samples of 97 pancreatic cancer patients and 71 healthy controls were collected, and the expression of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 was analyzed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationships between the expression of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of pancreatic cancer were analyzed by chi-square test, K-M survival curves and Cox proportional hazards regression model. The area under curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The effects of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 on the proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT) of Bxpc-3 cells were analyzed by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method, cell scratch test, Transwell invasion and Western blot.Results:The expression of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 in peripheral blood of pancreatic cancer patients was higher than those of healthy controls (all P<0.05). High expression of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 was associated with higher clinical stage, lymph node metastasis and venous invasion, and were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer (all P<0.05). The overall survival rate of patients with high expression of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 was significantly lower than that of patients with low expression of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 (all P<0.05). The AUC of circ_0141633, circ_0008234, the combination of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234, CA19-9 in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was 0.70, 0.67, 0.88 and 0.82, with sensitivity of 64.32%, 60.79%, 78.22% and 73.97%, respectively. The specificity was 68.54%, 65.46%, 81.65% and 79.41%, respectively. The diagnostic efficiency of combination was superior to CA19-9, circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 alone (all P<0.05). Interfering with circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 alone could inhibit the proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT of Bxpc-3 cells, and the above inhibitory effect was more obvious after interfering with both of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 (all P<0.05). Conclusions:The high expression of circ_0141633 and circ_0008234 in peripheral blood could be used as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of pancreatic cancer, and could promote the progression of pancreatic cancer.