Investigation of the lncRNA TUSC8 expression pattern in thyroid cancer tissues as a diagnostic biomarker

Abstract

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy worldwide, accounting for more than 586,000 new cases and 44,000 deaths globally in 2020. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common subtype and accounts for 70 It includes 80% of cases. Current diagnostic approaches rely on fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy and imaging techniques such as ultrasonography, which have limitations in diagnostic accuracy. In recent years, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as reliable and promising biomarkers for the diagnostic and therapeutic purposes of cancers due to their tissue-specific expression patterns. TUSC8 is a key tumor suppressor lncRNA that is functionally active in various biological pathways and its tumor suppressor role has been investigated in various cancers. Methods: After preparing 24 thyroid cancer tissue samples and 24 adjacent normal tissue samples, first RNA was extracted and then cDNA was synthesized, and using RT-PCR method, TUSC8 expression was measured and then the necessary analyzes were performed. Bioinformatics analysis of TCGA data was also used to confirm the findings and ROC curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic power. Results: The expression level of lncRNA TUSC8 in thyroid cancer tissue samples is significantly decreased (P-value less than 0.0001) compared to the adjacent normal tissue, and this finding is also observed and confirmed in the bioinformatics analysis of TCGA data. No significant correlation was observed between the decrease in TUSC8 expression and the clinical and pathological characteristics of the patients. ROC curve analysis of laboratory samples and TCGA data both indicate the appropriate sensitivity and specificity of the expression pattern of this lncRNA for the diagnosis of thyroid cancer.