The Clinical Value Of Serum MicroRNAs Expression In Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Objective:The aim of this study was to explore serum microRNAs expression in patients with papillary thyroid cancer(PTC) and thyroid benign lesions and examine the potential usefulness of the molecules as biomarkers for diagnosis and disease evaluation in PTC.Methods:1. Differential serum microRNAs expression patterns analysis were performed by Agilent technologies (Agilent Human microRNA V19.0, USA) in16serum samples (including11PTC patients and5thyroid benign lesions patients).2. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was applied to further measure the levels of11microRNAs (miR-574-5p, miR-16-5p, miR-451a, miR-223-3p, miR-122-5p, miR-23a-3p, miR-494-3p, miR-4741, miR-222-3p, miR-146b-5p and miR-199b-5p) in serum from121participants (79with PTC,42with thyroid benign lesions). We used synthetic cel-miR-39for quality control. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy.Results:1. The results of microRNA microarray showed that18microRNAs whose expression increased or decreased more than1.5-fold in PTC compared to thyroid benign lesions were identified (P<0.05), including9microRNAs that were upregulated and9microRNAs that were downregulated in PTC compared to thyroid benign lesions.2. The serum levels of miR-574-5p and miR-4741were significantly decreased in PTC patients compared with thyroid benign lesions patients (P=0.000and P=0.018). And serum miR-222-3p expression level on average was upregulated in PTC patients compared with thyroid benign lesions patients (P=0.002).3. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that serum miR-574-5p, miR-4741and miR-222-3p yield an AUC of0.700with57.14%sensitivity and74.68%specificity,0.631with73.81%sensitivity and54.43%specificity and0.717with79.75%sensitivity and61.90%specificity respectively, for discriminating between PTC patients and thyroid benign lesions patients.4. Furthermore, the serum level of miR-222-3p was dramatically and positively associated with three clinicopathological parameters (tumor size, number of foci, lymph node metastasis) in PTC patients(P<0.05). But serum miR-574-5p and miR-4741levels were not correlated with clinicopathological parameters in PTC patients (P>0.05).Conclusion:MicroRNA profile assay successfully detected a branch of differential expression microRNAs in serum between PTC patients and thyroid benign lesions patients. Serum miR-574-5p, miR-4741and miR-222-3p may act as novel non-invasive biomarkers for the early detection of PTC. The analysis of serum miR-222-3p did seem to be helpful in severity evaluation of patients with PTC.