Current Trends of Carcinoma: Experience of a Tertiary Care Cancer Center in North India

Circulating long non-coding RNA EWSAT1 acts as a liquid biopsy marker for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: A pilot study

The widespread public health problem of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the cause of an increasing number of deaths each year due to delayed diagnosis. Therefore, we require specific and sensitive new biomarkers to manage ESCC better. The detection of diseases, such as cancer, can now be achieved through non-invasive circulating blood-based methods. Blood-based circulating non-coding RNAs, such as miRNA and lncRNA, have been extensively used as valuable markers for lung, esophageal, and breast cancer diagnostic purposes, as quoted in our previous research. Herein, we investigated the role of novel long non-coding RNA EWSAT1 as a blood-based liquid biopsy biomarker for the ESCC. Our findings indicate that EWSAT1 lncRNA has an increased tumor suppressive activity in ESCC, as it reduces by ∼2.59-fold relative to healthy controls. Moreover, we established that EWSAT1 expression can significantly distinguish between clinicopathological characteristics, including age, gender, and lifestyle choices such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and drinking hot beverages among patients with ESCC and healthy individuals. In addition, the expression levels of lncRNA EWSAT1 could distinguish between individuals with more advanced ESCC cancer and those without it, as illustrated by the ROC curve (AUC = 0.7174, 95 % confidence intervals = 0.5901 to 0.8448, p-value = 0.001). Our in-silico prediction methods demonstrated that miR-873-5p is the direct target of EWSAT1, which competes with the tumor suppressor candidate 3 (TUSC3) and EGL-9 family hypoxia-inducible factor 3 (EGLN3) mRNAs through a sponging mechanism, creating the EWSAT1/miR-873-5p/mRNA axis. We have analyzed the role of EWSAT1 in various cellular processes and signaling pathways, including mTOR, Wnt, and MAPK signaling pathways. Circulating EWSAT1 can be used as a liquid biopsy marker for diagnosis of ESCC and has the potential to serve as an effective therapeutic biomarker, according to this pilot study.

Circulating Long Non-Coding RNAs LINC00324 and LOC100507053 as Potential Liquid Biopsy Markers for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Pilot Study

Background

Despite the availability of advanced technology to detect and treat esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), the 5-year survival rate of ESCC patients is still meager. Recently, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as essential players in the diagnosis and prognosis of various cancers.

Objective

This pilot study focused on identifying circulating lncRNAs as liquid biopsy markers for the ESCC.

Methodology

We performed next-generation sequencing (NGS) to profile circulating lncRNAs in ESCC and healthy individuals’ blood samples. The expression of the top five upregulated and top five downregulated lncRNAs were validated through quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), including samples used for the NGS. Later, we explored the diagnostic/prognostic potential of lncRNAs and their impact on the clinicopathological parameters of patients. To unravel the molecular target and pathways of identified lncRNAs, we utilized various bioinformatics tools such as lncRnome, RAID v2.0, Starbase, miRDB, TargetScan, Gene Ontology, and KEGG pathways.

Results

Through NGS profiling, we obtained 159 upregulated, 137 downregulated, and 188 neutral lncRNAs in ESCC blood samples compared to healthy individuals. Among dysregulated lncRNAs, we observed LINC00324 significantly upregulated (2.11-fold; p-value = 0.0032) and LOC100507053 significantly downregulated (2.22-fold; p-value = 0.0001) in ESCC patients. Furthermore, we found LINC00324 and LOC100507053 could discriminate ESCC cancer patients’ from non-cancer individuals with higher accuracy of Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) = 0.627 and 0.668, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier and log-rank analysis revealed higher expression levels of LINC00324 and lower expression levels of LOC100507053 well correlated with the poor prognosis of ESCC patients with a Hazard ratio of LINC00324 = 2.48 (95% CI: 1.055 to 5.835) and Hazard ratio of LOC100507053 = 4.75 (95% CI: 2.098 to 10.76)]. Moreover, we also observed lncRNAs expression well correlated with the age (>50 years), gender (Female), alcohol, tobacco, and hot beverages consumers. Using bioinformatics tools, we saw miR-493-5p as the direct molecular target of LINC00324 and interacted with the MAPK signaling pathway in ESCC pathogenesis.

Conclusion

This pilot study suggests that circulating LINC00324 and LOC100507053 can be used as a liquid biopsy marker of ESCC; however, multicentric studies are still warranted.