Dysregulation of LncRNA RBM5-AS1, LncRNA VPS9D1-AS1, LncRNA STEAP3-AS1, and wnt/β-catenin provides insights into colorectal cancer diagnosis

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) continues to be a major contributor to cancer-associated deaths worldwide, largely due to late-stage diagnoses. This study aims to investigate the tissue and plasma expression levels of antisense long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in CRC patients using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to evaluate their diagnostic potential. Materials and methods The current case-control study included an equal number of plasma (n = 40) and tissue (n = 10) samples from CRC patients and normal controls. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to assess the expression levels of lncRNAs RBM5-AS1, STEAP3-AS1, and VPS9D1-AS1. Additionally, the diagnostic performance of these lncRNAs was evaluated through ROC curve analysis, which also helped to identify the appropriate cutoff values. Results The expression of the β-catenin gene was significantly higher in both CRC tissues (6.78-fold increase, p = 0.02) and plasma samples (4.79-fold increase, p < 0.001) compared to the control group. Similarly, the expression of the lncRNAs was significantly higher in both CRC tissues and plasma samples compared to healthy subjects (p < 0.001). Furthermore, ROC curve analysis demonstrated that these lncRNAs had strong predictive power, with AUC values of 0.82 for STEAP3-AS1, 0.94 for VPS9D1-AS1, and 0.83 for RBM5-AS1. Conclusion As the results showed, the expression levels of β-catenin and lncRNAs STEAP3-AS1, VPS9D1-AS1, and RBM5-AS1 in both tissues and plasma samples from CRC patients were higher than those in healthy subjects; thus, they could serve as powerful biomarkers for CRC diagnosis. However, further studies are required to confirm these results and explore new approaches.