Circulating RNA and miRNA in Blood:Potential Applications as Tumor Markers / 中国生物工程杂志

ABSTRACT

Circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) are extracellular nucleic acids found in cell-free serum,plasma and other body fluids from healthy subjects as well as in patients. The ability to detect and quantitate specific DNA and RNA sequences has opened up the possibility of diagnosis and monitoring of diseases,especially in the field of cancer. Furthermore,in some recent studies it has been suggested a kind of non-coding RNA-microRNA (miRNA),also exist in cell-free serum and plasma,highlighting the field of using CNAs to diagnose cancer. As a novel tumor marker,tumor-specific circulating miRNAs holds great promise in early diagnosis of cancer.