Exosomal MicroRNAs Signature Acts as Efficient Biomarker for Non-Invasive Diagnosis of Gallbladder Carcinoma

Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is the most common biliary tract malignant tumor. However, few diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers are available. Although the potential role of exosomes in the diagnosis of several tumor types has been repeatedly explored, the use of exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) as specific biomarkers for GBC has not been systematically conducted. In this study, we identified a 5-exosomal miRNAs set that can be used to evaluate the risk of GBC through a three-step study that relies on biomarker discovery, training and validation. This biomarker set including the exosomal miR-552-3p, miR-581, miR-4433a-3p, miR-496, and miR-203b-3p. Small RNA high throughput sequencing was performed to identify plasma exosomal miRNAs expression between 8 Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) and 8 chronic cholecystitis (CC) patients. GBC and CC patients were matched according to the enrollment date, specimen collection protocol, age, and sex . A total of 22 types of miRNAs in plasma exosomes of GBC patients were down-regulated and 24 types of up-regulation when compared with CC.