Plasma miR-19b and miR-183 as Potential Biomarkers of Lung Cancer

PLoS One. 2016 Oct 21;11(10):e0165261. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165261. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Lung cancer is a complex disease that often manifests at the point when treatment is not effective. Introduction of blood-based complementary diagnostics using molecular markers may enhance early detection of this disease and help reduce the burden of lung cancer. Here we evaluated the diagnostic potential of seven plasma miRNA biomarkers (miR-21, -19b, -126, -25, -205, -183, -125b) by quantitative reverse transcription PCR. Influence clinical and demographical characteristics, including age, tumor stage and cancer subtype on miRNA levels was investigated. Four miRNAs were significantly dysregulated (miR-19b, -21, -25, -183) in lung cancer patients. Combination of miR-19b and miR-183 provided detection of lung cancer with 94.7% sensitivity and 95.2% specificity (AUC = 0.990). Thus, miRNAs have shown the potential to discriminate histological subtypes of lung cancer and reliably distinguish lung cancer patients from healthy individuals.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / blood*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • MicroRNAs / blood*
  • Middle Aged
  • Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • MIRN183 microRNA, human
  • MIRN19 microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs

Grants and funding

This study has been supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR, grant No. 14-04-01881), BOR grant VI.62.1.4, and Presidium of RAS research program ‘Molecular and Cellular Biology’ No. 6.1. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.