LncRNAs Gas5, MALAT1 and SNHG8 as Predictive Diagnostic Biomarkers for Epithelioid Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma in the Egyptian Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background Long non coding RNAs have proved their involvement in myriad of pathways whether physiological or pathological. To date, malignant pleural mesothelioma, MPM, is considered extremely aggressive cancer. One reason for this is the late diagnosis of the disease which could range from 30–40 years from asbestos exposure. There is an immense need for the development of new, sensitive, cheap and easy way for the early detection of the disease other than invasive ways as biopsies. The aim of this study is determination of expression of circulating lncRNAs in mesothelioma patients’ plasma searching for potential biomarkers. Methodology: Ten of previously identified lncRNA that were shown to have aberrant expression in mesothelioma tissues were selected as candidates for subsequent validation. The ten selected candidate LncRNA were verified using quantitative PCR (qPCR) in human plasma samples from mesothelioma patients versus healthy controls. Results Expression of circulating GAS5, SNHG8 and MALAT1 were significantly increased in plasma samples of patients when compared to controls. The ROC analysis of both MALAT1 and SNHG8 was; 88.89% sensitivity and 66.67% specificity. Their sensitivity was higher than that of GAS5 (sensitivity 72.22% and specificity 66.67%). The prediction model of GAS5 was statistically significant while that of SNHG8 and MALAT1 was not-probably due to small sample size. The AUC of the three ROC curves were acceptable and significant; 0.7519 for GAS5, 0.7352 for SNHG8 and 0.7185 for MALAT1. Which confirms their discrimination ability as markers. The three lncRNAs were not affected by age, gender or smoking status. Conclusion The three lncRNAs showed great potential as predictive diagnostic biomarkers independently. Although the prediction model for MALAT1 did not show significance, it was significantly expressed in patients more than controls p = 0.0266 and recorded sensitivity and specificity levels higher than those of GAS5.