The diagnostic value of LncRNA NEAT1 targeting miR-129-5p in pancreatic cancer patients

Early pancreatic cancer (PC) identification and management has gained much clinical and research attention. Recent reports have demonstrated the important function of circulating noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in the diagnosis and prognosis of malignancies. However, the clinical value of serum ncRNAs in PC has not been fully clarified. Hence, we investigated serum levels of long-ncRNA NEAT1 and miR-129-5p in PC cases, exploring their relationship with related targets BCL2 and TGF-β1. Serum NEAT1 and miR-129-5p levels were evaluated in 60 treatment-naïve PC cases and 30 apparent healthy individuals by RT-PCR. Besides, serum TGF-β1 and BCL2 levels were measured by ELISA, whereas CA19-9 and CEA were measured utilizing the chemiluminescence technique. We demonstrated that serum NEAT1, BCL2, and TGF-β1 levels were significantly upregulated, whereas serum levels of miR-129-5p were markedly reduced in PC cases compared to controls. miR-129-5p had a higher diagnostic value for PC than NEAT1, with specificity, sensitivity, and AUC of 100%, 95%, and 0.96 versus 93.3%, 83.3%, and 0.89, respectively. Moreover, miR-129-5p had a higher AUC than CA19-9 and CEA. Additionally, serum miR-129-5p was significantly downregulated in PC cases with T3 or T4 stages compared to those with T2 stage & negatively correlated with NEAT1, BCL2, and TGF-β1, whereas NEAT1 was notably positively correlated with BCL2 and TGF-β1. Collectively, serum NEAT1 and miR-129-5p could be beneficial biomarkers for the detection of PC. Also, our findings accentuate the correlation between NEAT1, miR-129-5p, BCL2, and TGF-β1 and provide PC therapeutic targets.