Affiliations: [a] The Laboratory of Thyroid Disease, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China | [b] Endocrinology Department, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China | [c] Department of Urology, The People's Hospital of Jimo, Qingdao, Shandong, China
Note: [1] These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The sensitivity and specificity of biomarkers which
have been used in clinical practice for diagnosis of papillary thyroid
carcinoma (PTC) are low, it is essential to develop novel diagnostic and
prognostic biomarkers for PTC. OBJECTIVE: To explore the expressions of miR-940, miR-15a, miR-16
and IL-23 in PTC tissues and plasma and their associations with the clinical
characteristics of PTC. METHODS: We investigated the expressions of miR-940, miR-15a,
miR-16 and IL-23 in plasma and thyroid tissues of PTC, nodular goiter and
healthy people with qRT-PCR, and further analyzed the associations between
their levels and the clinical characteristics of PTC. RESULTS: Level of IL-23 expression was higher while levels of
miR-940, miR-15a and miR-16 expression in the PTC tissues were lower
compared with the nodular goiter tissues and perineoplastic thyroid tissues.
And the levels of miR-940, miR-15a, miR-16 and IL-23 expression in the PTC
tissues were associated with some clinical characteristics of PTC, including
bilateral tumor, multicentricity, extrallyroidal invasion, cervical lymph
node metastasis, distant metastasis and clinical advanced stages (III/IV). CONCLUSIONS: Expressions of miR-940, miR-15a, miR-16 and IL-23 in
PTC tissues might be useful biomarkers and promising targets in the
diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma.
