Exosomal long noncoding RNA lnc-GNAQ-6:1 may serve as a diagnostic marker for gastric cancer

Abstract

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most aggressive cancers, with limited early diagnostic measures. Tumor-originated exosomal molecules are regarded as suitable candidates for non-invasive diagnosis. This study aimed to investigate the capacity of exosomal long noncoding RNA lnc-GNAQ-6:1 as a biomarker for early diagnosis of GC.

Methods: In this study, we collected sera from 43 patients with gastric cancer and 27 healthy subjects, then exosomes were isolated using commercial kits. Particle size analysis, Western bloting and protein-based exosomes quantification were conducted to identify the isolated exosomes and to evaluate its yield and purity. Expression levels of exosomal lnc-GNAQ-6:1 were detected by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). The serum concentrations of traditional biomarker (CA72-4, CEA, and CA19-9) were measured via a chemiluminescent detection system.The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and area under curve (AUC) were used to estimate the diagnostic capacity. Furthermore, we analyzed the potential relationship between serum exosomal lnc-GNAQ-6:1 expression and clinicopathological parameters of gastric cancer.

Results: The exosomes extracted in this study exhibited the typical exosome characteristics and purity. Patients with gastric cancer had the higher exosome yield than healthy volunteer. The results of qRT-PCR showed that compared with the healthy control, the expression of lnc-GNAQ-6:1 was significantly lower in the gastric cancer group. The area under the ROC curve is 0.732, which was higher than the diagnostic accuracy of CEA, CA 19-9 and CA72-4. However, the expression level of lnc-GNAQ-6:1 was not correlated with gender, age, tumor metastasis, serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), and carbohydrate antigen 72-4(CA72-4).

Conclusions: Our data demonstrated that serum exosomal lnc-GNAQ-6:1 is lowly expressed in patient with gastric cancer and might be evaluated in larger studies as a new diagnostic marker for gastric cancer.

Keywords: Exosomes; Gastric cancer; Inc-GNAQ-6:1; Long non coding RNA.