Expression of MiR-129 in Patients with Gastric Cardia Adenocarcinoma and Prognostic Analysis.

BACKGROUND

The goal of this study was to investigate the expression of micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-129 in the tissues and serum of patients with gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA) and to analyze its correlation with the prognosis of GCA patients.

METHODS

A total of 100 hospitalized patients diagnosed with GCA in our hospital and 80 normal controls (HCs) were enrolled, the RNA in the tissues and serum was extracted, and the differentially expressed miRNAs in GCA patients were screened by means of miRNA microarray analysis. Moreover, the expression of miR-129 was detected by qRT-PCR, and the relationship between miR-129 and GCA patients' prognosis was determined via survival analysis. The target genes of miR-129 were predicted using TargetScan, the resulting target genes were uploaded for enrichment analysis, and the potential biological processes and pathways in which miR-129 was involved were explored.

RESULTS

(1) A total of 30 and 25 differentially expressed miRNAs were screened out from the tissues and serum of GCA patients, respectively [fold change (FC) > 4 or FC < 0.25, p < 0.05]. (2) The expression of miR-129 declined in the tissues and serum of GCA patients compared with that in HCs (p < 0.01). (3) It was shown in univariate survival analysis that the expression level of miR-129 was a potential prognostic factor of GCA (p < 0.05). (4) Besides, the target genes of miR-129 participate in such biological processes and pathways as nuclear receptor transcription, mTOR, MAPK, and biological development.

CONCLUSIONS

The expression of miR-129 is decreased in GCA patients, and the more malignant the GCA is, the lower the expression of miR-129 will be. Moreover, miR-129 is associated with the prognosis of GCA patients.