Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jun 15, 2024; 16(6): 2757-2768
Published online Jun 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i6.2757
Circ_0004592: An auxiliary diagnostic biomarker for gastric cancer
Shan Kong, Yan-Hua Xu, Ming Zheng, Shao-Qing Ju, Heng-Chuan Shi
Shan Kong, Heng-Chuan Shi, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jiangsu Province Official Hospital, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China
Yan-Hua Xu, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital, Yangzhou 225000, Jiangsu Province, China
Ming Zheng, Shao-Qing Ju, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Shan Kong and Yan-Hua Xu.
Co-corresponding authors: Shao-Qing Ju and Heng-Chuan Shi.
Author contributions: Kong S and Xu YH collected the related data for the manuscript and drafted it; Zheng M collected samples; Ju SQ participated in the design of the research; Shi HC helped to draft and modify the manuscript; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Jiangsu Province Laboratory Medical Research Special Fund Project, No. SYH-3201160-0061(2023008).
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University (Approval No. 2020-L038).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All data and materials are available from the corresponding author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shao-Qing Ju, DPhil, Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, No. 20 Xisi Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China. mucunmeishan1130@qq.com
Received: January 29, 2024
Revised: March 12, 2024
Accepted: April 12, 2024
Published online: June 15, 2024
Processing time: 137 Days and 9.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) has a high mortality rate, and robust diagnostic biomarkers are currently lacking. However, the clinical relevance of circular RNAs (circRNAs) as GC biomarkers remains largely unexplored.

AIM

To evaluate the potential of novel circRNA circ_0004592 in the early screening and prognosis of GC.

METHODS

High-throughput sequencing of circRNAs was performed to screen for potential target molecules. Circ_0004592 expression was examined in GC tissues, cells, and plasma. Plasma samples were collected from healthy subjects’ patients, as well as from patients with benign lesions, precancerous lesions, and GC, whereafter the diagnostic accuracy of circ_0004592 was evaluated. The correlation between circ_0004592 levels in plasma and clinicopathological data of patients with GC was further analyzed.

RESULTS

Circ_0004592 was upregulated in both the tissue and plasma of patients with GC. Further, circ_0004592 expression was higher in patients with precancerous lesions than in healthy controls while being highest in patients with GC. In the same patient, the postoperative plasma level of circ_0004592 was lower than that in the preoperative period. Moreover, circ_0004592 level was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation, tumor depth, and lymph node metastasis. The area under the curve (AUC) of plasma circ_0004592 exhibited high sensitivity and specificity for differentiating patients with GC from healthy donors. Diagnosis based on circ_0004592, carcinoembryonic antigen, and cancer antigen 199 achieved a superior AUC and was highly sensitive.

CONCLUSION

Plasma circ_0004592 may represent a potential non-invasive auxiliary diagnostic biomarker for patients with GC.

Keywords: Biomarker; Circular RNA; Diagnosis; Gastric cancer; Plasma

Core Tip: Circ_0004592 was significantly overexpressed in gastric cancer (GC) tissues and plasma. Reverse transcription and real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction was validated as a robust approach for the detection of circ_0004592. The expression level of circ_0004592 in the plasma of patients with precancerous lesions was increased relative to that in healthy controls, suggesting that plasma circ_0004592 may serve as an early diagnostic biomarker. Further, its levels in plasma decreased following surgical resection of gastric tumors. High circ_0004592 expression was associated with the histological type, depth of tumor invasion, and lymph node metastasis of GC. These observations highlight the potential of circ_0004592 as a valuable diagnostic and prognostic biomarker.