Combination of serum human satellite RNA and miR-21-5p levels as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer

Takahiro Seimiya; Tatsunori Suzuki; Takuma Iwata; Takahiro Kishikawa; Kazuma Sekiba; Chikako Shibata; Kazunaga Ishigaki; Hiroaki Fujiwara; Hiroki Oyama; Sachiko Kanai; Tatsuya Sato; Yousuke Nakai; Rei Ishibashi; Masaru Moriyama; Ryo Nakagawa; Hideaki Ijichi; Motoyuki Otsuka; Kazuhiko Koike

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106021

Combination of serum human satellite RNA and miR-21-5p levels as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer

iScience. 2023 Jan 19;26(2):106021. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106021. eCollection 2023 Feb 17.

Authors

Takahiro Seimiya¹, Tatsunori Suzuki¹, Takuma Iwata¹, Takahiro Kishikawa¹, Kazuma Sekiba¹, Chikako Shibata¹, Kazunaga Ishigaki¹, Hiroaki Fujiwara¹, Hiroki Oyama¹, Sachiko Kanai¹, Tatsuya Sato¹, Yousuke Nakai^{1

2}, Rei Ishibashi¹, Masaru Moriyama³, Ryo Nakagawa³, Hideaki Ijichi¹, Motoyuki Otsuka¹, Kazuhiko Koike¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gastroenterology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
² Department of Endoscopy and Endoscopic Surgery, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan.
³ Omiya City Clinic, Saitama 330-8669, Japan.

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a poor prognosis due to the difficulty of its diagnosis. Because human satellite II (HSATII) RNA, a satellite repeat RNA, is highly and specifically expressed in human PDAC, the serum HSATII RNA level may be a biomarker of PDAC. To measure the serum HSATII RNA level with high sensitivity and reproducibility, we previously developed a convenient method, tandem repeat amplification by nuclease protection (TRAP) combined with droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Here, we refined the original method by simultaneously measuring the serum miR-21-5p level to enhance the detection of PDAC. The resulting PDAC-Index, constructed using serum HSATII RNA and miR-21-5p levels, discriminated patients with PDAC with high accuracy. We verified the clinical usefulness of the PDAC-Index as a supportive test in difficult-to-diagnose cases. The PDAC-Index has satisfactory diagnostic performance and may routinely be applied for detecting PDAC.

Keywords: Cancer; Cancer systems biology; Health sciences.