Objective: The purpose of this study was to screen target miRNA related to RB and explore the expression levels of target miRNA in RB and its potential value of diagnosis.
Methods: The Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA 4.0 Array was used to screen the differential miRNAs in the plasma of 5 RB patients before and after intravenous chemotherapy, and the most significant down-regulated miRNA was selected for target miRNA. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is used to verify the expression levels of plasma target miRNA in 30 RB patients. Then, qRT-PCR was performed to further verify the expression of target miRNA in plasma of RB patients and RB tumor tissues. Finally, receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the diagnostic power of plasma target miRNA.
Results: The miRNA Array obtain 8 core miRNAs, 1 up-regulated and 7 down-regulated, of which miR-6089 was the most significantly down-regulated. Plasma miR-6089 levels were significantly up-regulated in RB patients. Besides, in RB tumor tissues, miR-6089 levels were also obviously up-regulated. After intravenous chemotherapy, the expression of plasma miR-6089 was significantly decreased. Furthermore, ROC curve analysis showed that miR-6089 in the plasma had a good sensitivity and specificity for distinguishing RB from the healthy control group.
Conclusions: MiR-6089 may be considered as a novel potential diagnostic biomarker for RB.
Trial registration number: ChiCTR2000040154; date of registration: 2020/11/22; retrospectively registered.
Keywords: Biomarker; MicroRNA; Plasma; Retinoblastoma.