Elucidation of the mechanism of pancreatic cancer progression by exosomes in pancreatic juice and development of a novel diagnostic method

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K17420
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 53010:Gastroenterology-related
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Takikawa Tetsuya 東北大学, 大学病院, 助教 (70836882)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 膵癌 / バイオマーカー / エクソソーム / lncRNA

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Exosomes were isolated from the sera of patients with pancreatic cancer and benign diseases, and then total RNA was extracted from the exosomes. We compared the gene expression profiles of the exosomes between pancreatic cancer and benign diseases using next-generation sequencer. We focused on long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which have recently attracted attention as being involved in the development and progression of various malignancies, and identified 12 lncRNAs that are elevated and 16 incRNAs that are decreased in pancreatic cancer patients compared with benign diseases. Further research is needed to clarify which combination is most useful for diagnosis and whether it can be applied to the diagnosis of early-stage pancreatic cancer.

Free Research Field

膵癌

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

膵癌はわが国の部位別癌死亡数の第4位を占め、高齢化の進行に伴い今後さらなる患者数の増加が予想される。膵癌は外科的切除が唯一の根治療法であるが、画像診断技術が進歩した現在においても早期診断が困難であり、新しいバイオマーカーの開発が期待されている。
本研究では、血清エクソソーム中のlong non-coding RNが新しいバイオマーカーの候補となり得ることを示した。血液検体採取は比較的簡便で侵襲も少ないため、検診における膵癌スクリーニングなどへの応用も期待される。