Unveiling urinary extracellular vesicle mRNA signature for early diagnosis and prognosis of bladder cancer

Ning Sun ¹, Zhaowei Zhang ¹, Xiaoqing Yang ²

⁰State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.

Theranostics +

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January 16, 2025

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

Urinary extracellular vesicle (EV) mRNA signatures show promise as non-invasive biomarkers for bladder cancer (BC) early diagnosis and prognosis. This discovery could lead to simpler, earlier detection methods for BC patients.

Area Of Science

Oncology
Biomarker Discovery
Molecular Diagnostics

Background

Bladder cancer (BC) is a prevalent malignancy with diagnostic challenges due to a lack of reliable biomarkers.
Early diagnosis is critical for effective BC treatment and patient outcomes.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) in biofluids offer potential as sources of cancer biomarkers.

Purpose Of The Study

To identify and validate urinary extracellular vesicle (uEV) mRNA signatures for non-invasive early diagnosis and prognostic assessment of bladder cancer (BC).
To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a novel uEV-mRNA panel in distinguishing BC patients from healthy individuals.

Main Methods

Transcriptomic sequencing was employed to identify mRNA signatures in EVs from normal and BC cell lines.
Candidate uEV-mRNA biomarkers were quantified in clinical urine samples (n=97) using RT-qPCR.
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to assess diagnostic performance.

Main Results

Three specific mRNAs (SRGN, FLI1, MACROH2A2) in uEVs were identified as potential BC biomarkers.
The uEV-mRNA panel achieved a high diagnostic AUC of 0.973 for BC detection and 0.969 for early-stage BC.
Down-regulation of these uEV-mRNAs was observed in post-surgery urine samples, suggesting prognostic value.

Conclusions

The identified uEV-mRNA signature represents a promising non-invasive biomarker panel for early bladder cancer diagnosis.
The facile and non-intrusive nature of urine collection makes this approach highly suitable for clinical application.
These findings support the potential of uEV-mRNAs as a novel liquid biopsy for BC management.

Keywords:

biomarker bladder cancer extracellular vesicle mRNA urine

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