Long noncoding RNAs as novel serum biomarkers for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Combinatorial Gene Expression Profiling of Serum HULC, HOTAIR, and UCA1 lncRNAs to Differentiate Hepatocellular Carcinoma from Liver Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) presents a significant global health challenge due to limited early detection methods, primarily relying on conventional approaches like imaging and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Although non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) show promise as potential biomarkers in HCC, their true utility remains uncertain. We conducted a comprehensive review of 76 articles, analyzing 88 circulating lncRNAs in 6426 HCC patients. However, the lack of a standardized workflow protocol has hampered holistic comparisons across the literature. Consequently, we herein confined our meta-analysis to only a subset of these lncRNAs. The combined analysis of serum highly upregulated in liver cancer (HULC) gene expression with homeobox transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) and urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 (UCA1) demonstrated markedly enhanced sensitivity and specificity in diagnostic capability compared to traditional biomarkers or other ncRNAs. These findings could have substantial implications for the early diagnosis and tailored treatment of HCC.

The paradoxical functions of long noncoding RNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma: Implications in therapeutic opportunities and precision medicine

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the most aggressive and lethal diseases with poor prognosis, worldwide. However, the mechanisms underlying HCC have not been comprehensively elucidated. With the recent application of high-throughput sequencing techniques, a diverse catalogue of differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) in cancer have been shown to participate in HCC. Rather than being "transcriptional noise," they are emerging as important regulators of many biological processes, including chromatin remodelling, transcription, alternative splicing, translational and post-translational modification. Moreover, lncRNAs have dual effects in the development and progression of HCC, including oncogenic and tumour-suppressive roles. Collectively, recently data point to lncRNAs as novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers with satisfactory sensitivity and specificity, as well as being therapeutic targets for HCC patients. In this review, we highlight recent progress of the molecular patterns of lncRNAs and discuss their potential clinical application in human HCC.

Isosteroidal alkaloids from Fritillaria hupehensis Hsiao et K.C.Hsia: Synthesis and biological evaluation of alkaloid derivatives as potential cytotoxic agents

One new cevanine isosteroidal alkaloid named 5,6-anhydrohupehenine (1), together with five known alkaloids (2-6) were isolated from Fritillaria hupehensis Hsiao et K.C.Hsia, among which 5,6-anhydrohupehenine (1) exhibited strong inhibitory activity against HepG2 (IC₅₀ = 12.21 μM) and MCF-7 (IC₅₀ = 22.05 μM) cancer cells. Therefore, a total of 33 5,6-anhydrohupehenine derivatives (9a-9s, 10a-10f, 11a-11b, and 12a-12f) were synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxic activity. The cytotoxicity evaluation of all 5,6-anhydrohupehenine derivatives against HepG2 and MCF-7 human cancer cells revealed that 9s displayed best activity against HepG2 cells with IC₅₀ at 1.27 μM. Further biological evaluations on 9s showed that it inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells and induced apoptosis of the HepG2 cells by activating cleaved caspase-3. Moreover, 9s exhibited strong antimetastatic potential. These results suggest that 5,6-anhydrohupehenine is a promising compound to be designed as novel cytotoxic agents.

The impact of LncRNA dysregulation on clinicopathology and survival of pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA compliant)

Purpose

An increasing number of studies have reported a significant association between long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) dysregulation and pancreatic cancers. In the present study, we aimed to gather articles to evaluate the prognostic value of long non coding RNA in pancreatic cancer.

Experimental design

We systematically searched all eligible articles from databases of PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus to meta-analysis of published articles and screen association of multiple lncRNAs expression with clinicopathology and/or survival of pancreatic cancer. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used to analysis of overall survival, disease-free survival and progression-free survival were measured with a fixed or random effects model.

Results

A total of 39 articles were included in the present meta-analysis. Our results showed that dysregulation of lncRNAs were linked to overall survival (39 studies, 4736 patients HR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.25 ± 0.58, random-effects in pancreatic cancer. Moreover, altered lncRNAs were also contributed to progression-free survival (8 studies, 1180 patients HR: 1.88, 95% CI (1.35–2.62) and disease-free survival (2 studies, 285 patients, HR: 6.07, 95% CI 1.28–28.78). In addition, our findings revealed the association between dysregulated RNAs and clinicopathological features in this type of cancer.

Conclusions

In conclusion, dysregulated lncRNAs could be served as promising biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer.

A Circulating Long Noncoding RNA Panel Serves as a Diagnostic Marker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background

Circulating long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to serve as diagnostic biomarkers for various cancers. We aimed to elucidate the diagnostic efficacy of eight serum lncRNAs HULC, MALAT1, Linc00152, PTENP1, PTTG3P, SPRY4-IT1, UBE2CP3, and UCA1 and their combinations for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods

A total of 129 patients with HCC, 49 patients with liver cirrhosis, 27 patients with chronic hepatitis B, and 93 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. The levels of serum lncRNAs were assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The correlations between serum lncRNAs and clinicopathological characteristics were further analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under curve (AUC) were utilized to estimate the diagnostic capacity of serum lncRNAs and their combination with AFP for HCC. A logistic regression model was performed to establish a multiple-lncRNA panel.

Results

The levels of serum HULC, MALAT1, Linc00152, PTTG3P, SPRY4-IT1, UBE2CP3, and UCA1 were significantly higher in HCC patients than in patients with benign liver diseases and healthy controls, whereas serum PTENP1 was significantly decreased in HCC patients compared with healthy participants. Positive correlations between serum Linc00152 and GGT, serum PTTG3P and GGT, and serum SPRY4-IT1 and ALT were noted in HCC patients. ROC analysis revealed that all these lncRNAs had a significantly predictive value for HCC except for PTENP1. The best performance of single lncRNA was obtained by Linc00152 with an AUC of 0.877. When combined with AFP, the combination of Linc00152 and AFP gained the highest accuracy, yielding an AUC of 0.906. Through logistic regression analysis, the panel consisting of serum linc00152, UCA1, and AFP provided the greatest predictive ability, obtaining an AUC of 0.912 with 82.9% sensitivity and 88.2% specificity.

Conclusion

The panel of serum Linc00152, UCA1, and AFP demonstrates a novel and noninvasive biomarker with relatively high sensitivity and specificity for HCC diagnosis.

Long non-coding RNA BCAR4 promotes liver cancer progression by regulating proliferation, migration and invasion

Liver cancer (LC) is one of the primary contributors of cancer-associated death worldwide. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to participate in almost every aspect of cell biology and serve fundamental roles in carcinogenesis and cancer progression, including in LC. However, the clinical significance and functional role of the lncRNA breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance 4 (BCAR4) in LC have not yet been identified. The present study measured the expression levels of BCAR4 in LC cells and tissues, and discovered that BCAR4 was upregulated in LC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. Furthermore, high BCAR4 expression was associated with the presence of multiple tumors and advanced Tumor-Node-Metastasis stages (III/IV). Survival analysis found that high BCAR4 expression indicated poor overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). By analyzing the risk factors of poor OS and PFS using univariate analysis and multivariate analysis, high BCAR4 expression was revealed to be an independent risk factor of poor prognosis. In addition, the role of BCAR4 was further investigated in vitro, which revealed overexpression of BCAR4 to markedly promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of LC cells. Conversely, the loss of BCAR4 expression repressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of LC cells. In conclusion, BCAR4 is overexpressed in LC and is associated with LC progression. Therefore, BCAR4 may be used as a potential prognostic marker in LC.

Integrative analysis of dysregulated lncRNA-associated ceRNA network reveals potential lncRNA biomarkers for human hepatocellular carcinoma

Background

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis and a high incidence. The molecular changes and novel biomarkers of HCC need to be identified to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of this disease. We investigated the current research concentrations of HCC and identified the transcriptomics-related biomarkers of HCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TGCA) database.

Methods

We investigated the current research concentrations of HCC using literature metrology analysis for studies conducted from 2008 to 2018. We identified long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that correlated with the clinical features and survival prognoses of HCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TGCA) database. Differentially expressed genes (lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs) were also identified by TCGA datasets in HCC tumor tissues. A lncRNA competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network was constructed from lncRNAs based on intersected lncRNAs. Survival times and the association between the expression levels of the key lncRNAs of the ceRNA network and the clinicopathological characteristics of HCC patients were analyzed using TCGA. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the reliability of the results in tissue samples from 20 newly-diagnosed HCC patients.

Results

Analysis of the literature pertaining to HCC research revealed that current research is focused on lncRNA functions in tumorigenesis and tumor development. A total of 128 HCC dysregulated lncRNAs were identified; 66 were included in the co-expressed ceRNA network. We analyzed survival times and the associations between the expression of 66 key lncRNAs and the clinicopathological features of the HCC patients identified from TCGA. Twenty-six lncRNAs were associated with clinical features of HCC (P < 0.05) and six key lncRNAs were associated with survival time (log-rank test P < 0.05). Six key lncRNAs were selected for the validation of their expression levels in 20 patients with newly diagnosed HCC using qRT-PCR. Consistent fold changes in the trends of up and down regulation between qRT-PCR validation and TCGA proved the reliability of our bioinformatics analysis.

Conclusions

We used integrative bioinformatics analysis of the TCGA datasets to improve our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms involved with the functional features of lncRNAs in HCC. The results revealed that lncRNAs are potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of HCC.

Deleted in Breast Cancer 1 as a Novel Prognostic Biomarker for Digestive System Cancers: A Meta-Analysis

Deleted in Breast Cancer 1 (DBC1/CCAR2) is a regulatory protein involved in cell survival and cancer progression. Herein, we focused on summarizing the overall prognostic value of DBC1 for digestive system cancers. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis based on 9 studies with 2391 patients to generated combined hazard ratios (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence intervals (CI) for overall survival (OS) and clinicopathological features. Positive DBC1 expression was significantly associated with poor OS of digestive system cancers (pooled HR=1.650, 95% CI=1.087-2.504, P<0.019). Stratified analysis also verified the potential prognostic prediction of DBC1 in some subgroups, such as digestive tract cancers (pooled HR=1.685, 95% CI=1.013-2.802, P=0.044), univariate analysis method (pooled HR=2.077, 95%CI=1.221-3.533, P=0.007), publication date within five years (pooled HR=1.609, 95%CI=1.097-2.358, P =0.015), study sample size smaller than 200 (pooled HR=2.304, 95%CI=1.716-3.093, P<0.001) and cutoff value for positive tumor cells more than 50% (pooled HR=1.944, 95% CI=1.479-2.556, P<0.001). Additionally, in terms of the association between DBC1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics, DBC1 expression was correlated to age (pooled OR=0.596, 95%CI =0.467-0.761, P<0.001), WHO classification (pooled OR =3.780, 95% CI=2.303-6.205, P <0.001), Lauren classification (pooled OR=2.000, 95%CI =1.492-2.680, P<0.001), and lymph node metastasis (pooled OR=0.405, 95%CI=0.203-0.806, P=0.010). In conclusion, DBC1 could not only be an independent prognostic factor for survival of patients with digestive system cancer, but might also be a novel target for cancer therapy.

Down-regulation expression of TGFB2-AS1 inhibits the proliferation, migration, invasion and induces apoptosis in HepG2 cells

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer mortality and without effective prognosis. Previous study has been confirmed that the abnormal expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) TGFB2-AS1 was involved in tumorigenesis. However, the biological functions of TGFB2-AS1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain largely unclear.

OBJECTIVE

We comprehensively assess the clinical significance of TGFB2-AS1 and investigate the biological functions of TGFB2-AS1 on HCC HepG2 cells.

METHODS

We firstly confirmed the expression of TGFB2-AS1 between tumor and normal tissues using public available transcriptome data. We analyzed the clinical significance of TGFB2-AS1 using the TCGA HCC datasets. The biological functions of TGFB2-AS1 on HCC HepG2 cells were explored by multiple in vitro assays.

RESULTS

We found that TGFB2-AS1 was remarkably increased in HCC tissues (P = 0.00148) and exhibited a potential predictive marker for HCC, with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.708 (P = 0.0034) using the fifty pairs of matched HCC tissues of TCGA. Besides, higher expression of TGFB2-AS1 in HCC tissues was identified as being positively associated with advanced tumor (P = 0.012) and disease stage (P = 0.009) in 355 HCC cases using independent sample nonparametric test. Downregulation of TGFB2-AS1 expression significantly restrained proliferation (P < 0.01) and impaired colony formation (P < 0.05). Furthermore, TGFB2-AS1 depletion remarkably promoted the apoptosis of HepG2 cells (P < 0.05) and inhibited migration and invasion (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

Taken together, these findings suggested that TGFB2-AS1 might serve as a potential therapeutic target for HCC.

Diagnostic Value of lncRNAs as Biomarker in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Updated Meta-Analysis

Some long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) display aberrantly high or low expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and have the potential to serve as diagnostic biomarkers. Here, we accomplished a meta-analysis based on current studies to assess the diagnostic value of lncRNAs in HCC. Eligible literatures were systematically selected from PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase (up to January 20, 2018) according to defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. QUADAS scale was applied to the quality assessment of the included studies. Statistical analysis was performed through bivariate random-effects models based on R software. Publication bias was evaluated by funnel plot and Begg's and Egger's tests. 16 articles containing 2,268 cancer patients and 2,574 controls were selected for the final meta-analysis. Random effect model was used for the meta-analysis due to significant between-study heterogeneity. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) were 0.87(0.838-0.897), 0.829(0.794-0.86), 23.085(20.575-25.901), 4.533(4.239-4.847), and 0.176(0.166-0.186), respectively. Summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) was conducted to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of lncRNAs in HCC with the area under curve (AUC) of 0.915. Subgroups analysis showed that lncRNA profiling, sample size, specimen types, and ethnicity might be the sources of heterogeneity. No publication bias existed according to funnel plot symmetry and Begg's (P = 0.187) and Egger's (P = 0.477) tests. In conclusion, lncRNAs can serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers of HCC with high sensitivity and specificity. In addition, lncRNAs panel from serum and plasma has a relatively high diagnostic value for HCC patients from Asia.

Up-regulation of CTD-2547G23.4 in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and its prospective molecular regulatory mechanism: a novel qRT-PCR and bioinformatics analysis study

Background

Dysregulated expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has been reported in the pathogenesis and progression of multiple cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). LncRNA CTD-2547G23.4 is a novel lncRNA, and its role in HCC is still unknown. Here, we aimed to clarify the expression pattern and clinical value of CTD-2547G23.4 and to investigate the prospective regulatory mechanism via bioinformatics analysis in HCC.

Methods

To identify differentially expressed lncRNAs in HCC, we downloaded RNA-Seq data for HCC and adjacent non-tumour tissues via The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). CTD-2547G23.4 was selected by using the R language and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Furthermore, we validated the differential expression of CTD-2547G23.4 via Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), ArrayExpress, Oncomine databases and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationship between the CTD-2547G23.4 level and clinic pathological parameters was also assessed. To further probe the role of CTD-2547G23.4 in HCC cell cycle, lentivirus-mediated small interfering RNA was applied to silence CTD-2547G23.4 expression in Huh-7 cell line. In addition, the related genes of CTD-2547G23.4 gathered from The Atlas of Noncoding RNAs in Cancer (TANRIC) database and Multi Experiment Matrix (MEM) were assessed with Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, Protein Analysis Through Evolutionary Relationships and protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks.

Results

CTD-2547G23.4 expression was remarkably higher in 370 HCC tissue samples than that in adjacent non-tumour liver tissues (48.762 ± 27.270 vs. 14.511 ± 8.341, P < 0.001) from TCGA dataset. The relative expression level of CTD-2547G23.4 in HCC was consistently higher than that in adjacent non-cancerous tissues (2.464 ± 0.833 vs. 1.813 ± 0.784, P = 0.001) as assessed by real time RT-qPCR. The area under the curve of the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.8720 based on TCGA, qRT-PCR and GEO data. Further analysis indicated that the increased expression levels of CTD-2547G23.4 were associated with the neoplasm histologic grade and vascular tumour cell type. The expression of CTD-2547G23.4 was significantly downregulated in CTD-2547G23.4 knockdown cells. Moreover, cell cycle analysis revealed that CTD-2547G23.4 depletion in Huh-7 cell line led to S phase arrest. Furthermore, 314 related genes identified by TANRIC and MEM databases were processed with a pathway analysis. The bioinformatics analysis indicated that CTD-2547G23.4 might play a key role in the progress of HCC through four hub genes, SRC, CREBBP, ADCY8 and PPARA.

Conclusions

Collectively, we put forward the hypothesis that the novel lncRNA CTD-2547G23.4 may act as an exceptional clinical index and promote the HCC tumourigenesis and progression via various related genes.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-018-0566-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Long non-coding RNAs in renal cell carcinoma: A systematic review and clinical implications

Renal cell carcinoma is one of the most common malignancy in adults, its prognosis is poor in an advanced stage and early detection is difficult due to the lack of molecular biomarkers. The identification of novel biomarkers for RCC is an urgent and meaningful project. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is transcribed from genomic regions with a minimum length of 200 bases and limited protein-coding potential. Recently, lncRNAs have been greatly studied in a variety of cancer types. They participate in a wide variety of biological processes including cancer biology. In this review, we provide a new insight of the profiling of lncRNAs in RCC and their roles in renal carcinogenesis, with an emphasize on their potential in diagnosis, prognosis and potential roles in RCC therapy.

Long non-coding RNA BCYRN1 promotes the proliferation and metastasis of cervical cancer via targeting microRNA-138 in vitro and in vivo

Cervical cancer is one of the most malignant types of tumor and the fourth leading cause of cancer-associated mortality in females worldwide. High expression of brain cytoplasmic RNA 1 (BCYRN1) has been detected in various tumors. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of BCYRN1 in the viability and motility of cervical cancer, and the relevant mechanism. The results demonstrated that BCYRN1 was upregulated in cervical cancer tissues compared with normal tissues. Elevated levels of BCYRN1 were also detected in three human cervical cancer cell lines (SiHa, HeLa and CaSki) compared with non-cancerous ectocervical epithelial cell line (Ect1/E6E7). The expression of BCYRN1 was suppressed following transfection with small interfering RNA (siRNA) in HeLa cells. The silence of BCYRN1 significantly reduced cell viability and motility. Furthermore, microRNA (miR)-138 was predicted as a direct target of BCYRN1 and the expression of miR-138 was elevated in HeLa cells transfected with BCYRN1 siRNA. Subsequently, elevated levels of miR-138 were suppressed by transfection with miR-138 inhibitor in HeLa cells pretreated with BCYRN1 siRNA. The targeting association between BCYRN1 and miR-138 was supported by luciferase reporter assays. Additionally, BCYRN1 siRNA partially counteracted the effect of miR-138 inhibitor on promoting cell viability and mobility in HeLa cells. Finally, the in vivo experiment verified that BCYRN1 siRNA was able to prevent tumor growth, and reduced the expression of migration marker proteins metalloproteinase 2 and vascular endothelial cell growth factor, with enhanced expression levels of miR-138. These results suggest that lncRNA BCYRN1 promotes the proliferation and invasion of cervical cancer via targeting miR-138.

Combined low miRNA-29s is an independent risk factor in predicting prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy: A Chinese population-based study

The prediction of prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following partial hepatectomy is still an unresolved issue. The aim of this study is to identify the association between miRNA-29s family and the prognosis of patients with HCC in a large Asian cohort. We retrospectively reviewed 122 patients with HCC managed in our institution between 2008 and 2015. The expression of miRNA-29s was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Prognostic factors were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models. For the entire cohort of 122 patients, the normalized real-time PCR results showed that miRNA-29s (miR-29a, miR-29b, and miR-29c) were deregulated in tumor tissues as compared with corresponding nontumorous tissue samples. We then performed survival analysis to investigate the prognostic value of miRNA-29s. We found that low miR-29b was associated with a decreasing 5-year overall survival (OS) rate from 70.2% to 39.1% and low miR-29c was associated with a decreasing 5-year OS rate from 53.6% to 23.7%. We further conducted multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis adding the variable of combined low miR-29b and low miR-29c. The results demonstrated that combined low miR-29b and miR-29c was an independent prognostic factor of patients with HCC. In conclusion, we found that the miRNA-29s were down-regulated in tumor tissues as compared with corresponding nontumorous tissue samples. Combined low miR-29b and miR-29c was an independent prognostic factor of patients with HCC.

Dysregulated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in hepatocellular carcinoma: implications for tumorigenesis, disease progression, and liver cancer stem cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumours with a poor prognosis worldwide. While early stage tumours can be treated with curative approaches such as liver transplantation or surgical resection, these are only suitable for a minority of patients. Those with advanced stage disease are only suitable for supportive approaches and most are resistant to the conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Liver cancer stem cells (LCSCs) are a small subset of cancer cells with unlimited differentiation ability and tumour forming potential. In order to develop novel therapeutic approaches for HCC, we need to understand how the cancer develops and why treatment resistance occurs. Using high-throughput sequencing techniques, a large number of dysregulated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified, and some of which are closely linked to key aspects of liver cancer pathology, progression, outcomes and for the maintenance of cancer stem cell-like properties. In addition, some lncRNAs are potential biomarkers for HCC diagnosis and may serve as the therapeutic targets. This review summarizes data recently reported lncRNAs that might be critical for the maintenance of the biological properties of LCSCs.

Meta-analysis of the clinical value of abnormally expressed long non-coding RNAs for pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal malignant neoplasms of the digestive system. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a novel type of non-protein coding transcripts that play an important role in pancreatic carcinogenesis. We herein aimed to meta-analyze the diagnostic and prognostic significance of lncRNA expression profiles in PC. A comprehensive retrieval of eligible studies was performed based on the online databases. Quantitative meta-analyses of the pooled diagnostic parameters and hazard ratios (HRs) were enabled by using standard statistical methods. A total of 16 studies comprising 1386 PC patients were included. The pooled effect sizes exhibited that lncRNA expression profile achieved a combined sensitivity of 0.82 (95% CI: 0.72-0.89), specificity of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.65-0.86) and AUC (area under curve) of 0.87 (95% CI: 0.83-0.89) in distinguishing patients with PC from noncancerous controls. Notably, abnormally expressed lncRNAs were markedly associated with unfavorable overall survival (OS) in PC (univariate analysis: HR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.04-2.22, P = 0.031; multivariate analysis: HR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.19-2.02, P = 0.001). Statistical significance was also observed in our stratified analyses grouped by clinicopathologic features. In conclusion, abnormal lncRNA expression profiles could be rated as promising biomarker(s) to enable diagnosis and predict the prognosis of PC.

Serum long noncoding RNA urothelial carcinoma-associated 1: A novel biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) offer great potential as cancer biomarkers. This study was performed to assess the applicability of serum lncRNA urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 (UCA1) as a diagnostic and/or prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods

We examined UCA1 expression in serum samples from 105 patients with HCC, 105 patients with benign liver disease (BLD), and 105 healthy volunteers using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and analyzed the relationship between serum UCA1 and clinicopathological parameters of HCC as well as survival.

Results

Expression of serum UCA1 was significantly higher in patients with HCC and allowed for discrimination of HCC from BLD and healthy controls. High expression of serum UCA1 was significantly associated with a high tumor grade, large tumor size, positive vascular invasion, and advanced TNM stage. Multivariate analysis revealed that a high serum UCA1 level was an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for HCC.

Conclusions

Our results confirm the upregulation of serum UCA1 expression in HCC and indicate its clinical value as a noninvasive biomarker for HCC screening and prognostic prediction.

lncRNAs as prognostic molecular biomarkers in hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The latest studies have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may be considered markers as their expression levels were abnormal in cancer and can be used as a molecular biomarker for the potential assessment of cancer prognosis. In this study, we aimed to assess the prognostic value of lncRNA as marker of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. We performed a detailed search of the PubMed and Embase databases for articles on the prognostic value of various lncRNAs in HCC. We then carefully extracted the relevant data from the articles, and we used the meta-analysis method to analyze these results; heterogeneity and publication bias were also evaluated. With 40 associative studies included, we found that high expression of 27 types of lncRNA was associated with a poor prognosis in HCC patients, and low expression of 18 types of lncRNAs was associated with a worse prognosis. Patients with higher lncRNA expression had significantly poor overall survival (OS; pooled HR, 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03–1.52) as well as significantly poor recurrence-free survival (RFS; pooled HR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.26–2.17). Overexpression of lncRNAs may not meaningfully predict disease-free survival (DFS; pooled HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.52–2.07; p = 0.91). Our meta-analysis demonstrated that lncRNAs may serve as predictive biomarkers for cancer prognosis.

Long Noncoding RNA CRNDE Promotes Multiple Myeloma Cell Growth by Suppressing miR-451

It has been determined that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are identified as a potential regulatory factor in multiple tumors as well as multiple myeloma (MM). However, the role of colorectal neoplasia differentially expressed (CRNDE) in the pathogenesis of MM remains unclear. In this study, we found that the CRNDE expression level, in MM samples and cell lines, is higher than that in the control detected by real-time qPCR, which is also closely related to tumor progression and poor survival in MM patients. Knockdown of CRNDE significantly inhibits the proliferative vitality of MM cells (U266 and RPMI-8226), induces cell cycle arrest in the G₀/G₁ phase, and promotes apoptosis. After being transfected with siRNA, miR-451 expression observably increases. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase assay reveal the interaction by complementary bonding between CRNDE and miR-451. Pearson’s correlation shows that CRNDE is negatively correlated to miR-451 expression in human MM samples. Subsequently, miR-451 inhibitor rescues the inhibited tumorigenesis induced by CRNDE knockdown. Our study illustrates that lncRNA CRNDE induces the proliferation and antiapoptosis capability of MM by acting as a ceRNA or molecular sponge via negatively targeting miR-451, which could act as a novel diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for MM.