SNORD15B and SNORA5C: Novel Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers for Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is presenting a global public health problem with high incidence and mortality. Early diagnosis and treatment are the most important strategies to improve prognosis of this disease. Besides fecal occult blood test (FOBT) and colonoscopy, the most widely used methods for CRC screening currently, more effective methods for early diagnosis or prognostic prediction for CRC are needed. Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) is a class of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) playing crucial roles in carcinogenesis and considered to be promising tumor biomarker. In this study, we found that SNORD15B, SNORD48, and SNORA5C were significantly upregulated in CRC tissues. High levels of SNORD15B, SNORD48, or SNORA5C predicted poor clinical outcomes of CRC patients. Forced expression of SNORD15B or SNORA5C in CRC cells promoted proliferation and colony formation. In a further investigation, association between the level of SNORD15B/SNORA5C and clinicopathological parameters of CRC patient cohorts was analyzed based on data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We found that high expressions of SNORD15B and SNORA5C were significantly associated with age, lymphatic invasion, and history of colon polyps, and they were proved to be independent risk factors for survival of CRC patients. This study confirms that SNORD15B and SNORA5C have oncogenic effects in carcinogenesis of CRC. The findings suggest the two genes as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for CRC.

Small Nucleolar RNAs as Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarkers in Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…We also excluded 79 basic studies and 26 reviews from the remaining 105 eligible studies. Finally, we included a total of 49 studies in our qualitative synthesis, with 21 studies focused on diagnosis, 9 – 29 and 41 studies focused on prognosis. 11 , 13 – 15 , 17 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 28 , 30 – 56 Figure 1 provided detailing information about the selection process, which based on preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) standards.…”

SnoRNA profiling in colorectal cancer and assessment of non-invasive biomarker capacity by ddPCR in fecal samples

“…Among other snoRNAs that were not finally detected in FIT leftovers, we also selected SNORD15B because it was slightly upregulated in tumoral tissue from the Barcelona and Turin cohorts and because it was previously found upregulated in the study of Shen and colleagues. 28 In that study, authors found SNORD15B to be upregulated in CRC tissues and they studied its oncogenic potential in CRC cell lines, suggesting a role of this snoRNA in colorectal oncogenesis. However, although we could detect some fecal SNORD15B levels in FIT samples, we could not confirm a significant upregulation in CRC patients, and unexpectedly, it even showed a significant decrease in the AA group, in contrast to the increasing trend shown in tissue.…”

“…The same authors also found an association of SNORA42 with poor prognosis and distant metastases, as well as promoting tumor growth in mice models. Moreover, SNORD15B and SNORA5C have been recently found upregulated in CRC tissues by Shen and colleagues 28 : interestingly, the authors performed a set of functional studies to uncover their biological role in this malignancy. The levels of these two snoRNAs were also associated with poor prognosis not only in CRC but also in other cancers.…”

“… 22 Although these encouraging data exist, their behavior and use as biomarkers in the context of CRC have only been slightly explored. Several studies have observed a deregulation of some snoRNAs in CRC tissues 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 but there is still no evidence of their behavior in AAs.…”

Absolute Quantification of Selected microRNAs Expression in Endometrial Cancer by Digital PCR

“…Shen et al examined SNORDs in colorectal cancer patients and observed upregulation of SNORDs 48 [ 57 ]. Rapti et al used SNORD48 as a reference gene in colorectal cancer [ 58 ].…”