Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most threatening diseases. The symptoms of GC are complex and hard to detect, which also contribute to the poor prognosis of GC. Besides, the current diagnosis for GC is expensive and invasive. Thus, a fast, noninvasive
biomarker is urgently needed for GC screening.
MicroRNAs (
miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs, which are involved in a great variety of
pathological processes, particularly
carcinogenesis.
MiRNAs are stable in gastric juice, plasma as well as serum, which facilitate it to be a promising
biomarker for
cancer. In this study, we selected three novel
miRNAs, i.e., miR-233, miR-16, and miR-100, to investigate their potential diagnostic value in GC screening. A total of 50 GC patients and 47 healthy controls were involved in this study. Blood serum samples were collected; RNAs were extracted and normalized with
U6 snRNA as the internal control; qRT-PCR was performed for relative expression of target
miRNAs. Levels of
miRNAs expression were compared by Student's t test for the comparison between two groups, and one-way ANOVA was used for multiple comparisons. The expression of miR-223, miR-16, and miR-100 was all significantly higher in GC patients than controls (all P < 0.001). All the tested
miRNAs were manifested to be valuable
biomarkers for GC. Relative expression of these
miRNAs was significantly correlated with clinical characteristics of GC patients, such as TNM stage (P = 0.036 for miR-223; P < 0.001 for miR-100), metastatic status (P = 0.045 for miR-223; P = 0.031 for miR-16; P = 0.006 for miR-100),
tumor size (P = 0.042 for miR-223; P = 0.031 for miR-16; P < 0.001 for miR-100), and differentiation grade (P = 0.036 for miR-223; P = 0.030 for miR-16; P = 0.034 for miR-100). However, in T classification, which considered both
tumor size and direct extent of primary
tumor, the difference in target
miRNAs expression was not significant. In summary, we confirmed the diagnostic value of serum miR-223, miR-16, and miR-100 in GC. Significantly elevated expression of the three
miRNAs was also observed in advanced GC patients, which suggested their availability in
cancer staging.