The expression and clinical significance of plasma miR-486 and miR-499 in patients with lung cancer

YANG Yang; YANG Qing; JIA Youchao; LI Xiaofang; YANG Hua; ZHANG Qian; PENG Xinyu; ZANG Aimin

doi:10.11958/20160528

Abstract：Objective To explore the expression levels of miR-486 and miR-499 in the plasma of lung cancer patients, and analyze their expression differences in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Methods Blood samples were collected in 35 patients with lung cancer (21 NSCLC and 14 SCLC) and 30 healthy persons (control group). The real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the expression levels of plasma miR-486 and miR-499 in two groups. The plasma levels of miRNA-486 and miRNA-499 and their correlation with various clinical features in NSCLC and SCLC patients were analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic curves(ROC)of miRNA expressions were analyzed. The area under a curve (AUC), threshold and the sensitivity and specificity were calculated. Results The expression levels of miR-486 and miR-499 were significantly lower in NSCLC and SCLC groups than those of the control group(P<0.05). There were no significant differences in the expression of miR-486 between different clinical features in NSCLC group. For the late cancer TNM staging, the tumor differentiation was lower, and the miR-499 expression level was lower (P<0.05). In SCLC group, for the late cancer staging, there was a lower expression level of miR-486. There were no significant differences in the expressions of miR-499 between different clinical features. The miRNA-486 AUC in the diagnosis of lung cancer was 0.83(95%CI: 0.73-0.93), the sensitivity and specialty rates were 90.0% and 68.6%respectively, and the best diagnostic value was 1.02. The miRNA-499 AUC in the diagnosis of lung cancer was 0.75 (95%CI: 0.62-0.88), the sensitivity and specialty rates were 60.0% and 94.3% respectively, and the best diagnostic boundary value was 0.18 for lung cancer. Conclusion The plasma expression levels of miR-499 and miR-486 are down-regulated in lung cancer patients, which suggest a poor prognosis and can be used as potential screening and prognostic indicators for <br> lung cancer.