Respiratory Research Division, Department of Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Education and Research Centre, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
Thorax. 2015 May;70(5):501-3. doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2014-206193. Epub 2014 Dec 30.
Biomarkers are quantifiable indicators of disease. These surrogates should be specific, sensitive, predictive, robust and easily accessible. A major class of RNA described as non-coding RNA fulfils many of these criteria, and recent studies have demonstrated that the two major subclasses of non-coding RNA, long non-coding RNA and, in particular, microRNA are promising potential biomarkers. The ability to detect non-coding RNAs in biofluids has highlighted their usefulness as non-invasive markers of lung disease. Because expression of specific non-coding RNAs is altered in many lung diseases and their levels in the circulation often reflect the changes in expression of their lung-specific counterparts, exploiting these biomolecules as diagnostic tools seems an obvious goal. New technology is driving developments in this area and there has been significant recent progress with respect to lung cancer diagnostics. The non-coding RNA biomarker field represents a clear example of modern-day bench-to-bedside research.
生物标志物是疾病的可量化指标。这些替代物应该具有特异性、敏感性、预测性、稳健性和易于获取性。一类被描述为非编码 RNA 的主要 RNA 满足了许多这些标准，最近的研究表明，非编码 RNA 的两个主要亚类，长非编码 RNA 和特别是 microRNA 是很有前途的潜在生物标志物。能够在生物流体中检测非编码 RNA 突出了它们作为非侵入性肺疾病标志物的有用性。由于在许多肺部疾病中特异性非编码 RNA 的表达发生改变，并且它们在循环中的水平通常反映了其肺特异性对应物表达的变化，因此将这些生物分子用作诊断工具似乎是一个明显的目标。新技术推动了该领域的发展，并且在肺癌诊断方面取得了重大的最新进展。非编码 RNA 生物标志物领域是现代从实验室到临床研究的一个明显例子。
