Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. May 15, 2025; 17(5): 104776
Published online May 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i5.104776
Circulating exosomal miR-17-92 cluster serves as a novel noninvasive diagnostic marker for patients with gastric cancer
Ye Han, Xing-Po Guo, Qiao-Ming Zhi, Jing-Jing Xu, Fei Liu, Yu-Ting Kuang
Ye Han, Xing-Po Guo, Qiao-Ming Zhi, Yu-Ting Kuang, Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
Jing-Jing Xu, Department of Central Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
Fei Liu, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Ye Han and Xing-Po Guo.
Co-corresponding authors: Fei Liu and Yu-Ting Kuang.
Author contributions: Han Y, Liu F, and Kuang YT conceptualized and designed the research; Han Y, Guo XP, and Zhi QM screened patients and acquired clinical data; Guo XP, Zhi QM, and Xu JJ collected blood specimens and performed laboratory analysis; Han Y, Xu JJ, and Liu F performed data analysis; Han Y, Liu F, and Kuang YT wrote the paper; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript. Liu F and Kuang YT have played important and indispensable roles in the experimental design, data interpretation, and manuscript preparation as the co-corresponding authors.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81902805; Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation, No. BK20190174; Suzhou Gusu Health Talent Research Project, No. GSWS2023039; and Suzhou Medical Youth Talents Project, No. Qngg2024004.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University (Approval No. 2019113).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
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 noncommercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is noncommercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yu-Ting Kuang, MD, Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No. 188 Shizi Street, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China. sudaytkuang@163.com
Received: January 2, 2025
Revised: February 25, 2025
Accepted: March 13, 2025
Published online: May 15, 2025
Processing time: 134 Days and 18.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) is among the most common malignant tumors and remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Furthermore, exosomal miRNAs are regarded as promising noninvasive biomarkers for diagnosing malignant tumors.

AIM

To investigate the expression of exosomal miR-17-92 clusters and develop a potential biomarker for GC diagnosis

METHODS

Exosomes were isolated from serum samples obtained from 72 GC patients and 20 healthy controls. The isolated exosomes were validated using transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and western blotting. Exosomal RNA was then extracted, and the expression profile of the miR-17-92 cluster was analyzed using qRT-PCR. Statistical methods were employed to evaluate the relationship between the serum exosomal miR-17-92 cluster expression and the clinicopathological parameters of GC patients as well as to assess the diagnostic utility of these miRNAs.

RESULTS

The expression of four members of the exosomal miR-17-92 cluster-miR-17, miR-18, miR-19a, and miR-92-was significantly upregulated in the serum samples of patients with GC compared with those of healthy controls. The miR-17-92 cluster panel demonstrated substantially higher clinical diagnostic value for GC than any individual component or pair. Additionally, the expression of traditional tumor biomarkers-carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9-was significantly elevated in the serum of patients with GC compared with that of healthy controls. Each biomarker, whether alone or in combination, effectively differentiated the patients from healthy controls. Furthermore, a combined panel of the two traditional tumor biomarkers and the four miR-17-92 cluster members exhibited the highest diagnostic accuracy for GC. Elevated miR-17-92 expression was also strongly associated with tumor size, tumor depth, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and tumor-node-metastasis stage.

CONCLUSION

Our findings revealed that the circulating exosomal miR-17-92 cluster may be used as a potential noninvasive biomarker to improve diagnostic efficiency for GC.

Keywords: Gastric cancer; Serum; Exosome; miR-17-92 cluster; Diagnosis

Core Tip: The expression levels of exosomal miR-17-92 clusters were significantly upregulated in the serum of patients with gastric cancer (GC). Elevated expression levels of exosomal miR-17-92 were closely correlated with tumor size, tumor depth, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and tumor-node-metastasis stage of these patients. The combined panel of miR-17, miR-18, miR-19a, and miR-92 showed substantially higher clinical diagnostic value for GC than any individual component or pair. The newly developed panel comprising carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen 19-9, and the four miR-17-92 cluster members exhibited the most robust clinical diagnostic value for GC.