Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Helwan University, P.O. Box 11795, Cairo, Egypt.
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmaceutical Industries, Future University, Cairo, Egypt.
Mol Biol Rep. 2023 May;50(5):4339-4345. doi: 10.1007/s11033-023-08370-z. Epub 2023 Mar 20.
Bladder cancer (BC) is recorded as the fifth most common cancer worldwide with high morbidity and mortality. The most urgent problem in BCs is the high recurrence rate as two-thirds of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) will develop into muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), which retains a feature of rapid progress and metastasis. In addition, only a limited number of biomarkers are available for diagnosing BC compared to other cancers. Hence, finding sensitive and specific biomarkers for predicting the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with BC is critically needed. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the expression and clinical significance of urinary lncRNA BLACAT1 as a non-invasively diagnostic and prognostic biomarker to detect and differentiate BCs stages.
The expression levels of urinary BLACAT1 were detected by qRT-PCR assay in seventy (70) BC patients with different TNM grades (T0-T3) and twelve (12) healthy subjects as control. BLACAT1 was downregulated in superficial stages (T0 = 0.09 ± 0.02 and T1 = 0.5 ± 0.1) compared to healthy control. Furthermore, in the invasive stages, its levels started to elevate in the T2 stage (1.2 ± 0. 2), and higher levels were detected in the T3 stage with a mean value of (5.2 ± 0.6). This elevation was positively correlated with disease progression. Therefore, BLACAT1 can differentiate between metastatic and non-metastatic stages of BCs. Furthermore, its predictive values are not like to be influenced by schistosomal infection.
Upregulation of BLACAT1 in invasive stages predicted an unfavorable prognosis for patients with BCs, as it contributes to the migration and metastasis of BCs. Therefore, we can conclude that urinary BLACAT1 may be considered a non-invasive promising metastatic biomarker for BCs.
膀胱癌（BC）是全球第五大常见癌症，发病率和死亡率都很高。BC 最紧迫的问题是复发率高，因为三分之二的非肌肉浸润性膀胱癌（NMIBC）会发展成肌肉浸润性膀胱癌（MIBC），保留了快速进展和转移的特征。此外，与其他癌症相比，用于诊断 BC 的生物标志物数量有限。因此，寻找用于预测 BC 患者诊断和预后的敏感和特异的生物标志物是非常必要的。因此，本研究旨在确定尿液长链非编码 RNA BLACAT1 的表达及其作为非侵入性诊断和预后生物标志物用于检测和区分 BC 分期的临床意义。
通过 qRT-PCR 检测 70 例不同 TNM 分级（T0-T3）的 BC 患者和 12 例健康对照者的尿液 BLACAT1 表达水平。BLACAT1 在表浅分期（T0=0.09±0.02 和 T1=0.5±0.1）中下调，与健康对照组相比。此外，在侵袭性分期中，其水平在 T2 期开始升高（1.2±0.2），在 T3 期检测到更高水平，平均值为（5.2±0.6）。这种升高与疾病进展呈正相关。因此，BLACAT1 可以区分 BC 的转移性和非转移性阶段。此外，其预测值不太可能受到血吸虫感染的影响。
BLACAT1 在侵袭性分期中的上调预示着 BC 患者预后不良，因为它有助于 BC 的迁移和转移。因此，我们可以得出结论，尿液 BLACAT1 可能被认为是 BC 的一种有前途的非侵入性转移性生物标志物。
