Urinary exosomal long noncoding RNAs serve as biomarkers for early detection of non-small cell lung cancer

Objective: Increasing the efficiency of early diagnosis using noninvasive biomarkers is cru-cial for enhancing the survival rate of lung cancer patients. We explore the differential ex-pression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)-related long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in urinary exosomes in NSCLC patients and normal controls to diagnose lung cancer. Methods: A differential expression analysis between NSCLC patients and healthy controls was performed using microarrays. Gene ontology (GO) term and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were used to predict potential functions of lncRNAs in NSCLC. quantitative real-time PCR (QT-PCR) was used to verify microarray results. Results: A total of 640 lncRNAs (70 up-and 570 down-regulated) were differentially ex-pressed in NSCLC patients in comparison to healthy controls. Six lncRNAs were detected by QT-PCR. GO term and KEGG pathway analyses showed that differential lncRNAs were enriched in cellular component organization or biogenesis, as well as other biological pro-cesses and signaling pathways, such as the PI3K-AKT, FOXO, p53, and fatty acid biosyn-thesis. Conclusions: The differential lncRNAs in urinary exosomes are potential diagnostic biomarkers of NSCLC. The lncRNAs enriched in specific pathways may be associated with tumor cell proliferation, tumor cell apoptosis, and the cell cycle involved in the pathogenesis of NSCLC.