Low Expression of TRF-Pro-CGG Predicts Poor Prognosis in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Overview

Journal J Clin Lab Anal

Publisher Wiley

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
Biotechnology
Pathology

Date 2021 Mar 6

PMID 33675071

Citations 11

Authors

Jun Li

Lei Jin

Yuan Gao

Peng Gao

Le Ma

Bei Zhu

Xu Yin

Shizhen Sui

Shuai Chen

Zijian Jiang

Chunfu Zhu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background & Aims: tRFs (tRNA-derived RNA fragments) have been reported to facilitate cancer progression in multiple cancers. However, their role in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains to be determined. In this study, we mainly investigated the expression of tRF-Pro-CGG in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and evaluated its relationship with the clinicopathology and survival time of patients.

Methods: 37 cases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and 15 cases of normal pancreatic tissues were collected which were resected by surgery from January 2017 to June 2020 from the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic surgery of Changzhou second people's Hospital. The expression of tRF-Pro-CGG in paraffin-embedded tissues was detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The clinical data including age, sex, tumor location, tumor diameter, tumor clinical stage (TNM stage), depth of invasion, regional lymph node metastasis, serum CA199, and serum CEA were collected and analyzed retrospectively, whether the expression tRF-Pro-CGG was correlation with the pathological parameters and clinical outcomes of patients.

Results: The expression level of tRF-Pro-CGG was significantly downregulated in PDAC and associated with an advanced TNM stage (P=0.000) and the N stage (P=0.000) of patients. More importantly, low tRF-Pro-CGG expression predicted poor survival in PDAC patients (P=0.003).

Conclusions: TRF-Pro-CGG is under-expressed in PDAC and is associated with short clinical survival and poor prognosis. tRF-Pro-CGG is an independent prognostic factor, which highlights its role as a potential biomarker for PDAC progression and therapy.

Citing Articles

The functions and modifications of tRNA-derived small RNAs in cancer biology.

Saad A, Zhang K, Deng Q, Zhou J, Ge L, Wang H Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2025; 44(1):38.

PMID: 40072687 DOI: 10.1007/s10555-025-10254-6.

The role of tRNA-Derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) in pancreatic cancer and acute pancreatitis.

Pan Y, Ying X, Zhang X, Jiang H, Yan J, Duan S Noncoding RNA Res. 2025; 11:200-208.

PMID: 39896345 PMC: 11786804. DOI: 10.1016/j.ncrna.2024.12.011.

Digging out the biology properties of tRNA-derived small RNA from black hole.

Shi H, Xie J, Pei S, He D, Hou H, Xu S Front Genet. 2023; 14:1232325.

PMID: 37953919 PMC: 10637384. DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1232325.

Biological function and clinical application prospect of tsRNAs in digestive system biology and pathology.

Du J, Huang T, Zheng Z, Fang S, Deng H, Liu K Cell Commun Signal. 2023; 21(1):302.

PMID: 37904174 PMC: 10614346. DOI: 10.1186/s12964-023-01341-8.

Emerging roles of tRNA-derived small RNAs in cancer biology.

Lee S, Kim J, Valdmanis P, Kim H Exp Mol Med. 2023; 55(7):1293-1304.

PMID: 37430089 PMC: 10393972. DOI: 10.1038/s12276-023-01038-5.

References

Oettle H, Neuhaus P, Hochhaus A, Hartmann J, Gellert K, Ridwelski K . Adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine and long-term outcomes among patients with resected pancreatic cancer: the CONKO-001 randomized trial. JAMA. 2013; 310(14):1473-81. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2013.279201. View

Zhu L, Ge J, Li T, Shen Y, Guo J . tRNA-derived fragments and tRNA halves: The new players in cancers. Cancer Lett. 2019; 452:31-37. DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2019.03.012. View

Couvillion M, Sachidanandam R, Collins K . A growth-essential Tetrahymena Piwi protein carries tRNA fragment cargo. Genes Dev. 2010; 24(24):2742-7. PMC: 3003190. DOI: 10.1101/gad.1996210. View

Chen Q, Yan M, Cao Z, Li X, Zhang Y, Shi J . Sperm tsRNAs contribute to intergenerational inheritance of an acquired metabolic disorder. Science. 2016; 351(6271):397-400. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad7977. View

Jin L, Zhu C, Qin X . Expression profile of tRNA-derived fragments in pancreatic cancer. Oncol Lett. 2019; 18(3):3104-3114. PMC: 6676665. DOI: 10.3892/ol.2019.10601. View

Preis M, Korc M . Kinase signaling pathways as targets for intervention in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Biol Ther. 2010; 9(10):754-63. DOI: 10.4161/cbt.9.10.11534. View

Zhou J, Liu S, Chen Y, Fu Y, Silver A, Hill M . Identification of two novel functional tRNA-derived fragments induced in response to respiratory syncytial virus infection. J Gen Virol. 2017; 98(7):1600-1610. PMC: 5721923. DOI: 10.1099/jgv.0.000852. View

Lim J, Chien M, Earle C . Prognostic factors following curative resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a population-based, linked database analysis of 396 patients. Ann Surg. 2002; 237(1):74-85. PMC: 1513971. DOI: 10.1097/00000658-200301000-00011. View

Lin C, Zheng L, Huang R, Yang G, Chen J, Li H . tRFs as Potential Exosome tRNA-Derived Fragment Biomarkers for Gastric Carcinoma. Clin Lab. 2020; 66(6). DOI: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2019.190811. View

10.

Zhu L, Li J, Gong Y, Wu Q, Tan S, Sun D . Exosomal tRNA-derived small RNA as a promising biomarker for cancer diagnosis. Mol Cancer. 2019; 18(1):74. PMC: 6444574. DOI: 10.1186/s12943-019-1000-8. View

11.

Vincent A, Herman J, Schulick R, Hruban R, Goggins M . Pancreatic cancer. Lancet. 2011; 378(9791):607-20. PMC: 3062508. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62307-0. View

12.

Sener S, Fremgen A, Menck H, WINCHESTER D . Pancreatic cancer: a report of treatment and survival trends for 100,313 patients diagnosed from 1985-1995, using the National Cancer Database. J Am Coll Surg. 1999; 189(1):1-7. DOI: 10.1016/s1072-7515(99)00075-7. View

13.

Vojtech L, Woo S, Hughes S, Levy C, Ballweber L, Sauteraud R . Exosomes in human semen carry a distinctive repertoire of small non-coding RNAs with potential regulatory functions. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014; 42(11):7290-304. PMC: 4066774. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gku347. View

14.

Goodarzi H, Liu X, Nguyen H, Zhang S, Fish L, Tavazoie S . Endogenous tRNA-Derived Fragments Suppress Breast Cancer Progression via YBX1 Displacement. Cell. 2015; 161(4):790-802. PMC: 4457382. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.053. View

15.

Yeung M, Bennasser Y, Watashi K, Le S, Houzet L, Jeang K . Pyrosequencing of small non-coding RNAs in HIV-1 infected cells: evidence for the processing of a viral-cellular double-stranded RNA hybrid. Nucleic Acids Res. 2009; 37(19):6575-86. PMC: 2770672. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkp707. View

16.

Fu H, Feng J, Liu Q, Sun F, Tie Y, Zhu J . Stress induces tRNA cleavage by angiogenin in mammalian cells. FEBS Lett. 2008; 583(2):437-42. DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2008.12.043. View

17.

Dong X, Fan X, He X, Chen S, Huang W, Gao J . Comprehensively Identifying the Key tRNA-Derived Fragments and Investigating Their Function in Gastric Cancer Processes. Onco Targets Ther. 2020; 13:10931-10943. PMC: 7605384. DOI: 10.2147/OTT.S266130. View

18.

Li S, Xu Z, Sheng J . tRNA-Derived Small RNA: A Novel Regulatory Small Non-Coding RNA. Genes (Basel). 2018; 9(5). PMC: 5977186. DOI: 10.3390/genes9050246. View

19.

Li S, Shi X, Chen M, Xu N, Sun D, Bai R . Angiogenin promotes colorectal cancer metastasis via tiRNA production. Int J Cancer. 2019; 145(5):1395-1407. DOI: 10.1002/ijc.32245. View

20.

Sharma U, Conine C, Shea J, Boskovic A, Derr A, Bing X . Biogenesis and function of tRNA fragments during sperm maturation and fertilization in mammals. Science. 2016; 351(6271):391-396. PMC: 4888079. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad6780. View