Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Head and Neck Cancer
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1410110
This article is part of the Research Topic Circulating Biomarkers in Cancer: Towards Personalized Precision Medicine View all 3 articles

From Sequencing to Validation: NGS-based Exploration of Plasma miRNA in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Provisionally accepted
Wangpeng Cui Wangpeng Cui 1,2Tao Xuan Tao Xuan 3,4Tian Liao Tian Liao 1,2*Yu Wang Yu Wang 1,2*
  • 1 Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China
  • 2 Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai, China
  • 3 Other, Suzhou, China
  • 4 Shanghai Runan Medical Technology Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: A non-invasive method using plasma microRNAs provides new insights into thyroid cancer diagnosis. The objective of this study was to discover potential circulating biomarkers of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) through the analysis of plasma miRNAs using next-generation sequencing (NGS). Methods: Plasma miRNAs were isolated from peripheral blood samples collected from healthy individuals, patients diagnosed with PTC, and those with benign thyroid nodules. The Illumina NovaSeq 6000 platform was employed to establish the miRNA expression profiles. Candidate miRNAs for diagnostic purposes were identified utilizing the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. The selected miRNAs were subsequently validated in an independent validation set using RT-qPCR. Results: NGS results revealed consistent plasma miRNA expression patterns among healthy individuals and patients with benign thyroid nodules in the discovery set (6 healthy cases, 17 benign cases), while differing significantly from those observed in the PTC group (17 PTC cases). Seven miRNAs exhibiting significant expression differences were identified and utilized to construct an RF classifier. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for PTC diagnosis, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.978. Subsequent KEGG and GO analyses of the target genes associated with these 7 miRNAs highlighted pathways relevant to tumors and the cell cycle. Independent validation through RT-qPCR in a separate cohort (15 CONTROL, 15 PTC groups) underscored hsa-miR-301a-3p and hsa-miR-195-5p as promising candidates for PTC diagnosis. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study established a seven-miRNA panel in plasma by Random Forest algorithm with significant performance in discriminating PTC from healthy or benign group. hsa-miR-301a-3p, hsa-miR-195-5p in plasma have potential for further study in the diagnosis of PTC in Asian ethnic.

    Keywords: papillary thyroid cancer 1, circulating biomarkers 2, MicroRNA 3, cancer diagnosis 4, NGS 5

    Received: 31 Mar 2024; Accepted: 17 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cui, Xuan, Liao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Tian Liao, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China
    Yu Wang, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.