Analysis Of Serum Expression Profiles Of Exosomal MicroRNA In Patients With Superficial Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background and Objective Esophageal cancer is one of the most common gastrointestinal tumors.Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,a major subtype,approximately comprises over 90%of all esophageal cancer cases in China.Exosomal miRNA is promising in acting as diagnostic and prognostic marker for many cancers.This study aimed to explore the expression of exosomal miRNAs in serum of patients with superficial esophageal squamous carcinoma,and established a basis for further elucidation of the development and diagnosis of superficial esophageal squamous carcinoma.Methods The serum samples from 12 patients with superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and 12 healthy individuals were selected for extraction and characterization of exosomes.Exosomal microRNA expression profiles were analyzed via Illumina next generation high-throughput sequencing technology.Differential analysis was performed and visualized by edgeR.The Funrich was then applied to predict the target genes of the differential miRNAs and perform functional enrichment analysis.Finally,the identification and miRNAmRNA co-expression network was established utilizing the blood exosome mRNA expression profile from the online database to further select key genes.Results As a result,a total of 8 up-regulated and 11 down-regulated miRNAs were obtained and 2,778 target genes of the miRNAs were acquired after gene prediction.The functional enrichment suggested that the target genes were significantly enriched in PI3K-Akt pathway,MAPK pathway and Proteoglycans in cancer,etc.The validation of Online database revealed that the trend is consistent in expression of sa-miR-30a-5p,hsa-miR-185-5p,hsa-miR-99a-5p,hsa-miR-7-5p and hsa-miR-96-5p in serum exosomes and tissue of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.In addition,the co-expression network determined 5 miRNAs had more distinct correlation with mRNA,which were hsa-miR-182-5p,hsa-miR-30a-5p,hsa-miR-125a-5p,hsamiR-20b-5p,and hsa-miR-183-5p.Conclusion The expression of several serum exosomal miRNAs are dysregulated in superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cases.And among them,hsa-miR-182-5p,hsamiR-30a-5p,hsa-miR-125a-5p,hsa-miR-183-5p,hsa-miR-7-5p and hsa-miR-96-5p in serum changed consistently with those in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissue,but their specific mechanisms need to be further validated.