The Expression Analysis of Long Non-coding RNAs Related to Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in Pancreatic Cancer Patients.

Background The oncogenic Wnt/β-catenin signaling plays a critical role in carcinogenesis, prognosis, and resistance to therapy. Pancreatic cancer (PC) has high mortality because of its poor prognosis. Several studies have suggested that lncRNAs are directly involved in the development and progression of PC as well as in Wnt/β-catenin signaling. In this study, we investigated and compared the expression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling-related ZFAS1 and HCG11 lncRNAs, and their targets, CTNNB1 and IGF2BP1 genes in the blood of patients with PC and healthy individuals. A total of 47 PC patients and 50 healthy individuals participated in this study. RNA was extracted from the peripheral blood samples of participants, and cDNA was synthesized. The expression level of the selected genes was quantified by real-time PCR. The expression of HCG11 lncRNA and CTNNB1 genes in patients with PC was significantly upregulated compared to healthy individuals, and the expression of the ZFAS1 lncRNA was significantly downregulated. According to the analysis of the ROC curve, the diagnostic powers of ZFAS1 and CTNNB1 in PC were 0.67 and 0.69, respectively. Altogether, the present study suggests a role for ZFAS1 and HCG11 lncRNAs and CTNNB1 and IGF2BP1 in the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer. Moreover, the peripheral expression of these lncRNAs may be useful as potential biomarkers for PC.