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Published on: September 12, 2019
Serum tRNA-derived fragments as potential biomarkers in children with acute intussusception
Lian Zhao1, Wei Chen1, Wan-Liang Guo1
1Children's Hospital of Soochow University, China.
Insights
Transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA)-derived fragments (tRFs) show promise as biomarkers for pediatric intussusception. Three specific tRFs, tRF-Leu-TAA-006, tRF-Gln-TTG-033, and tRF-Lys-TTT-028, demonstrated high accuracy in predicting this common cause of bowel obstruction.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Genomics
- Pediatric Medicine
Background:
- Pediatric intussusception is a frequent cause of bowel obstruction in children.
- Delayed diagnosis or treatment can lead to intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury and necessitate bowel resection.
- Identifying reliable biomarkers is crucial for timely intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the potential of transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA)-derived fragments (tRFs) as diagnostic biomarkers for pediatric intussusception.
- To identify specific tRFs that can differentiate between children with and without intussusception.
Main Methods:
- High-throughput sequencing was employed to identify differentially expressed tRFs in pediatric intussusception patients.
- Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the expression of selected tRFs.
- Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the identified tRFs.
Main Results:
- A total of 34 differentially expressed tRFs and tRNA-derived stress-induced RNAs (tiRNAs) were identified.
- Three specific tRFs—tRF-Leu-TAA-006, tRF-Gln-TTG-033, and tRF-Lys-TTT-028—showed significant upregulation in intussusception patients.
- These three tRFs demonstrated high area under the curve (AUC) values (0.984, 0.970, and 0.837, respectively) in ROC analysis.
Conclusions:
- Circulating levels of tRF-Leu-TAA-006, tRF-Gln-TTG-033, and tRF-Lys-TTT-028 may serve as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of pediatric intussusception.
- These tRFs offer a potential non-invasive method for early detection and management of intussusception.
- Further validation in larger cohorts is warranted to establish their clinical utility.
Introduction:
Pediatric intussusception is one of the most common causes of bowel obstruction in the pediatric population. Affected children have one section of the intestine sliding into the adjacent section. Intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury (I/R) can occur during pediatric intussusception, and any delay in diagnosis or treatment can lead to loss of intestinal viability that requires bowel resection. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA)-derived fragments (tRFs) can serve as candidate biomarkers for pediatric intussusception.
Material And Methods:
Using high-throughput sequencing technology, we identified differentially expressed tRFs, and ultimately selected three tRFs to establish a signature as a predictive biomarker of pediatric intussusception. Selection of these three upregulated genes was verified using quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). We conducted receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the selected genes for pediatric intussusception.
Results:
We detected 732 tRFs and tRNA-derived stress-induced RNA (tiRNAs), 1705 microRNAs (miRNAs), 52 differentially expressed miRNAs, and 34 differentially expressed tRFs and tiRNAs between patients and controls. Compared with controls, we found 33 upregulated miRNAs, 24 upregulated tRFs and tiRNAs, 19 downregulated miRNAs, and 10 downregulated tRFs and tiRNAs in children with intussusception. Using qPCR, the expression trends of tRF-Leu-TAA-006, tRF-Gln-TTG-033 and tRF-Lys-TTT-028 were consistent with the sequencing results. AUCs of tRF-Leu-TAA-006, tRF-Gln-TTG-033 and tRF-Lys-TTT-028 were 0.984, 0.970 and 0.837, respectively.
Conclusions:
Circulating tRF-Leu-TAA-006, tRF-Gln-TTG-033 and tRF-Lys-TTT-028 expression might be a novel potential biomarker for diagnosis of pediatric intussusception.
