miR-34a-5p, miR-148a-3p and miR-181a-5p: potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal cancer detected by a novel absolute quantitative RT-qPCR method

Abstract Background Esophageal cancer (EC) is a malignant tumor of esophagus with progressive dysphagia as the main clinical manifestation. miRNAs are expected to become potential biomarkers in diagnosis and prognosis of EC. Methods Based on AllGlo probes, a novel absolute quantitative RT-qPCR method was established to detect miRNAs. And the clinical diagnosis significance of the screened miRNAs was explored with 213 patients (166 cases with EC and 47 cases with benign diseases) and 170 normal controls. Results Through a series of screening, miR-34a-5p, miR-148a-3p and miR-181a-5p were selected as EC-associated candidate miRNAs. Based on AllGlo probes, a novel absolute quantitative RT-qPCR method for detecting miRNAs was established with high sensitivity, specificity, good accuracy and no carryover contamination. Compared with normal controls, the level of miR-34a-5p increased while miR-148a-3p and miR-181a-5p decreased in EC and benign patients ( P <0.001), and the level of miR-181-5p in early EC patients was significantly lower ( P <0.001). According to logistic regression analysis, the combined detection of miR-34a-5p, miR-148a-3p and Cyfra21-1 provided the highest diagnosis efficiency of 85.07% with sensitivity and specificity reaching 85.45% and 84.71%. Compared with preoperative samples, the level of miR-34a-5p significantly decreased while the levels of miR-148a-3p and miR-181a-5p significantly increased in the postoperative samples ( P <0.001). Conclusions Based on AllGlo probes, this first developed, novel absolute quantitative RT-qPCR method exhibits high application value in detecting miRNAs. miR-34a-5p, miR-148a-3p and miR-181a-5p may serve as potential biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of EC, especially, miR-181-5p probably could be used as a new biomarker for early EC.