Investig Clin Urol.  2022 Mar;63(2):238-244. 10.4111/icu.20210493.

Urinary hsv2-miR-H9 to hsa-miR-3659 ratio is an effective marker for discriminating prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia in patients within the prostate-specific antigen grey zone

• Kang HW
• Byun YJ
• Moon SM
• Kim K
• Piao XM
• Zheng CM
• Moon SK
• Choi YH
• Kim WT
• Kim YJ
• Lee SC
• Yun SJ
• Kim WJ

• KMID: 2526896
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4111/icu.20210493

Abstract

Purpose
Tumor microRNAs (miRNAs) are released to biofluids directly or indirectly. Although urinary miRNAs are promising noninvasive biomarkers for the diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa), their clinical application is challenging for technical reasons. We examined the efficacy of urinary hsv2-miR-H9 to hsa-miR-3659 ratio as a non-invasive diagnostic biomarker of PCa.
Materials and Methods
The expression of urinary miRNAs was quantified by real-time PCR in 116 samples from 53 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and 63 patients with PCa. The miRNA expression ratio was calculated using an upregulated miRNA (hsv2-miR-H9) as the numerator and a downregulated miRNA (hsa-miR-3659) as the denominator.
Results
The urinary miR-H9 to miR-3659 ratio was significantly higher in PCa than in BPH controls (p<0.001). The diagnostic accuracy of the urinary miRNA expression ratio was comparable with that of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) (receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve comparison, p=0.287). The area under the curve for urinary miRNA expression ratio was 0.862 and that for PSA was 0.642 in the “PSA gray zone” (3–10 ng/mL) (ROC curve comparison, p=0.034). The use of the urinary miRNA expression ratio would have prevented 70.6% of unnecessary prostate biopsies; however, 28.6% of PCa cases could be missed in patients within the PSA gray zone.
Conclusions
The expression ratio of urinary miR-H9 to miR-3659 could be a relevant non-invasive biomarker for PCa diagnosis, particularly for patients within the PSA gray zone.

Keyword

Biomarker; Diagnosis; Microarray analysis; MicroRNAs; Prostatic neoplasms