Serum level of miRNA-146a in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and its clinical significance

GAO Yongcai; LI Qiang; XIE Canguo; WANG Qi; GUO Bitao

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-0460.2018.02.008

Abstract：Objective To investigate the serum level of miRNA-146a (miR-146a) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) and its clinical significance. Methods From April 2015 to March 2017,serum samples of 93 patients with NSCLC and 67 healthy people were collected,and fluorescence quantitative-PCR (QPCR) was used to detect the serum levels of miR-146a in both groups. The relationship between serum miR-146a levels and clinicopathological parameters (gender, age, tumor size, TNM stage, histological type and lymph node metastasis) was further analyzed. The ROC curve of serum miR-146a expression in diagnosing NSCLC was drawn to calculate the area under the curve and Youden index (sensitivity+specificity-1) was calculate to determine the critical point of the serum miR-146a in the diagnosis of NSCLC. miRBase database was used to predict the target genes of miR-146a, and cyto-scape 3.5.1 and its plug-in ClueGO were used to draw KEGG signaling pathway enrichment. Results The QPCR test showed that the serum level of miR-146a in 93 patients with NSCLC was 2.798±1.615,higher than 1.190±0.738 of 67 healthy controls (t = 7.595, P<0.001). The serum level of miR-146a in NSCLC was not related to sex, age, histologic type and lymph node metastasis. It was related to the size of tumor and TNM staging. The serum miR-146a level of tumor over 3 cm in size was 3.298±1.553,higher than 2.074±1.434 of tumor of 3 cm or less in size (P<0.05). The serum miR-146a level of stage Ⅲ-IV was 3.917±1.434,higher than 1.750±0.928 of tumor of stage I-Ⅱ (P<0.05). The area under the curve of serum miR-146a for diagnosing NSCLC is 0.825 (95％CI:0.763-0.887). When the serum miR-146a level is 1.928,the Jorden index is the largest with a sensitivity of 65.6％ and a specificity of 85.1％. A total number of 182 target genes of miR-146a were predicted, mainly enriched in signaling pathways related with inflammation and tumor. Conclusion The serum level of miR-146a is up-regulated in patients with NSCLC and is associated with the severity of the disease. It is expected to be a diagnostic marker and a biological therapeutic target for NSCLC.