Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2018; 24(11): 1206-1215
Published online Mar 21, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i11.1206
Three-microRNA signature identified by bioinformatics analysis predicts prognosis of gastric cancer patients
Cheng Zhang, Chun-Dong Zhang, Ming-Hui Ma, Dong-Qiu Dai
Cheng Zhang, Chun-Dong Zhang, Ming-Hui Ma, Dong-Qiu Dai, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110032, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Dai DQ designed this study; Zhang C, Zhang CD, and Ma MH conducted the data analysis; Zhang C wrote the article.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30572162; and Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, No. 201602817.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dong-Qiu Dai, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Surgical Oncologist, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, 4 Chongshan Road, Shenyang 110032, Liaoning Province, China. daidq63@163.com
Telephone: +86-24-62043110 Fax: +86-24-62043110
Received: December 9, 2017
Peer-review started: December 10, 2017
First decision: December 21, 2017
Revised: December 25, 2017
Accepted: January 16, 2018
Article in press: January 16, 2018
Published online: March 21, 2018
Processing time: 97 Days and 2 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Increasing studies have reported that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the development and progression of cancers, including gastric cancer (GC). Furthermore, miRNAs can also act as accurate biomarkers in diagnosis and prognosis prediction. In this study, we found that a three-miRNA signature could be used for predicting the prognosis of GC patients and multiple miRNAs together acting as biomarkers may have a stronger reliability in survival prediction.

Research motivation

The worldwide incidence and mortality rates of GC are fairly high. Most of GC patients have been in the advanced stage when diagnosed and endure a poor prognosis. Identifying accurate biomarkers in predicting prognosis of patients is an urgent issue to be solved, so that patients could have an individualized treatment and an improvement in prognosis.

Research objectives

We aimed to identify multiple miRNAs for predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. In the present study, we found that a three-miRNA (miR-145-3p, miR-125b-5p, and miR-99a-5p) signature could be used for predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. This objective could be applied to clinical practice and have a guidance role in improving the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.

Research methods

We obtained the differentially expressed miRNAs by analyzing a microarray dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus database with the limma package in R. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used for describing the survival curve. The target genes of the three miRNAs (miR-145-3p, miR-125b-5p, and miR-99a-5p) were predicted with the online tools of TargetScan, miRDB, miRWalk, and DIANA. Venn plot was performed to obtain the common target genes from these four online tools. Enrichment analysis was conducted on the consensus genes using the FunRich tool.

Research results

In the present study, we found that a three-miRNA (miR-145-3p, miR-125b-5p, and miR-99a-5p) signature could be used for predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. Multiple miRNAs together acting as prognosis-related biomarkers may have a stronger reliability and this finding could be useful in clinical treatment according to gastric cancer patients with different prognoses. However, the role of miR-145-3p in the tumorigenesis and progression of gastric cancer remains unclear. Thus, this problem remains to be solved in our future study.

Research conclusions

Our study identified that the three miRNAs (miR-145-3p, miR-125b-5p, and miR-99a-5p) were up-regulated in gastric cancer patients by analyzing a microarray dataset. Besides, the novel three-miRNA signature could be used for predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. Multiple miRNAs together acting as prognosis-related biomarkers may have a stronger reliability, so that our finding could be useful in clinical treatment according to gastric cancer patients with different prognoses.

Research perspectives

This study provides us with a new insight that multiple miRNAs can be together used for predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. In order to further confirm the prognostic value of the three-miRNA signature, our future research may focus on exploring the relation between miR-145-3p and gastric cancer.