Circulating exosomal miR-125a-5p as a novel biomarker for cervical cancer

Exosomal microRNAs (miRs/miRNAs) have been reported to be associated with cervical cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate circulating exosomal miRNA as a biomarker for cervical cancer diagnosis. In the present study, samples from 6 patients with cervical cancer and 6 healthy control subjects were retrieved for exosomal RNA-sequencing. The results revealed that a total of 39 miRNAs were differentially expressed between patients with cervical cancer and healthy controls (P<0.001; fold-change >2.0). Exosomal miR-125a-5p was further quantified in plasma from 60 subjects, which included 22 healthy individuals and 38 patients with cervical cancer. miR-16a-5p served as the reference miRNA for quantitative PCR analysis of exosomal miR-125a-5p in patients with cervical cancer and healthy individuals. The results revealed that exosomal miR-125a-5p expression levels in the patients with cervical cancer were significantly lower than those in the healthy controls (P<0.001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed and the results revealed that the level of plasma exosomal miR-125a-5p was a potential marker for differentiating between non-cervical cancer and cervical cancer, with an ROC area under the curve of 0.7129. At the cut-off value of 2.537 for miR-125a-5p, cervical cancer diagnostic sensitivities and specificities were 59.1 and 84.2%, respectively. The present study provides confirmation that exosomal miR-125a-5p could potentially serve as a biomarker for cervical cancer diagnosis. The present study involved only a small number of clinical samples; more samples are required to support the conclusions of the present study.