BMC Gastroenterology (Apr 2021)

Circulating miRNA-202-3p is a potential novel biomarker for diagnosis of type 1 gastric neuroendocrine neoplasms

  • Dou Dou,
  • Xiao-kou Li,
  • Qi-sheng Xia,
  • Ying-ying Chen,
  • Yuan-liang Li,
  • Chao Wang,
  • Zhi-rong Qi,
  • Huang-ying Tan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12876-021-01769-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 21, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Abstract Background Currently, there are no circulating diagnostic biomarkers for gastric neuroendocrine neoplasms (g-NENs). In previous studies, we found that miRNA-202-3p is overexpressed in the tumour tissue of type 1 g-NEN. We speculated that miRNA-202-3p is also likely to be highly expressed in circulating blood. Methods A total of 27 patients with type 1 g-NEN and 27 age- and sex-matched control participants were enrolled in this study. The miRNA-202-3p levels in serum obtained from the participants were measured by qRT‐PCR. The expression level of miRNA-202-3p in the samples was calculated by comparison with a standard curve. Results The clinical characteristics of the patients were similar to those of the patient samples in previous reports. Expression of miRNA-202-3p was significantly higher in the patient group (3.84 × 107 copies/nl) than in the control group (0.635 × 107 copies/nl). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.878 (95% CI: 0.788–0.968), and the optimal cut-off point was approximately 1.12 × 107 copies/nl. The sensitivity and specificity were 88.9% and 77.8%, respectively. Conclusion This study suggests that miRNA-202-3p is potentially useful as a biomarker of type 1 g-NEN; further investigation and verification should be performed in future research.

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