Investigating Urinary Circular RNA Biomarkers for Improved Detection of Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Renal cell carcinomas (RCC) are usually asymptomatic until late stages, posing several challenges for early detection of malignant disease. Non-invasive liquid biopsy biomarkers are emerging as an important diagnostic tool which could aid with routine screening of RCCs. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are novel non-coding RNAs that play diverse roles in carcinogenesis. They are promising biomarkers due to their stability and ease of detection in small quantities from non-invasive sources such as urine. In this study, we analyzed the expression of various circRNAs that were previously identified in RCC tumors (circEGLN3, circABCB10, circSOD2 and circACAD11) in urinary sediment samples from non-neoplastic controls, patients with benign renal tumors, and clear cell RCC (ccRCC) patients. We observed significantly reduced levels of circEGLN3 and circSOD2 in urine from ccRCC patients compared to healthy controls. We also assessed the linear variant of EGLN3 and found differential expression between patients with benign tumors compared to ccRCC patients. These findings highlight the potential of circRNA markers as non-invasive diagnostic tools to detect malignant RCC.

Frontiers in oncology. 2022 Jan 31*** epublish ***

Madonna R Peter, Fang Zhao, Renu Jeyapala, Shivani Kamdar, Wei Xu, Cynthia Hawkins, Andrew J Evans, Neil E Fleshner, Antonio Finelli, Bharati Bapat

Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON, Canada., Department of Biostatistics, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada., Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada., Department of Laboratory Medicine, Mackenzie Health, Richmond Hill, ON, Canada., Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.