LncRNA MIR22HG and miR-10a-5p: Pioneering serum biomarkers for pancreatic cancer diagnosis and progression assessment

Background Pancreatic cancer (PC) endures as one of the most lethal malignancies, characterized by a dismal prognosis due to late-stage detection and limited therapeutic options. Circulating noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) play significant roles in malignancy detection and prognosis. Thus, we evaluated the clinical value of serum long ncRNA MIR22HG and miR-10a-5p in PC cases, clarifying their relationship with downstream targets: β-catenin, C-myc, and E-cadherin. Methods A case-control study was conducted involving 65 PC cases and 25 healthy controls, utilizing RT-qPCR to measure serum levels of MIR22HG, miR-10a-5p, β-catenin, C-myc, and ELISA to investigate E-cadherin. Besides, CA19.9 and CEA were assessed employing the chemiluminescence approach. Results Our findings revealed significant downregulation of MIR22HG, β-catenin, and C-myc, alongside upregulation of miR-10a-5p and E-cadherin in the serum of PC cases compared to controls. MIR22HG and miR-10a-5p demonstrated high diagnostic accuracy for PC with AUCs of 0.95 and 0.97, respectively. The diagnostic efficiency of PC traditional markers, CA19.9 or CEA, was enhanced by integrating with MIR22HG and miR-10a-5p. Moreover, low MIR22HG and β-catenin serum levels were notably associated with advanced lymphatic and distant metastases, distinguishing between metastatic and curative PC cases with AUCs of 0.73 and 0.82, respectively. MIR22HG was notably positively correlated with β-catenin and C-myc, whereas it was negatively correlated with miR-10a-5p. Conclusion This study highlights the clinical potential of serum MIR22HG and miR-10a-5p as novel diagnostic biomarkers and identifies MIR22HG and β-catenin as prognostic indicators, thereby paving the way for improved PC management.