The tsRNAs (tRFdb-3013a And tRFdb-3013b) Serve As Novel Biomarkers For Colon Adenocarcinomas

Background: The tsRNAs (tRNA-derived small RNAs) are novel class of small non-coding RNAs derived from transfer-RNAs. Colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) are well known malignant intestinal tumors. This study focused on the identification and characterization of tsRNA biomarkers in colon adenocarcinomas. Methods: Data processing, bioinformatic analysis and visualization were performed with R or Python software. The cell proliferation, migration and invasion ability were described by CCK-8 and transwell assays. Luciferase reporter assays were performed to test the binding of tsRNA with its target.Results: With computational approaches, we identified the tsRNA fragments profiles within COAD datasets, and discriminated forty-two differentially expressed tsRNAs between colon adenocarcinomas and non-tumor controls. Among the fragments derived from the 3′ end of mature tRNA-His-GUG (a histidyl-transfer-RNA), tRFdb-3013a and tRFdb-3013b (tRFdb-3013a/b) were significantly decreased in colon adenocarcinomas, especially, tRFdb-3013a/b may tend to down-regulated in the patients with lymphatic or vascular invasion present. The clinical survival of colon adenocarcinomas patients with low tRFdb-3013a/b expression was significantly worse than that of high expression patients. In colon adenocarcinoma cells, tRFdb-3013a could suppressed cell proliferation, and reduced cell migration and invasion ability. The enrichment analyses showed that most of tRFdb-3013a-related genes were enriched in the extracellular matrix associated GO terms, phagosome pathway, and a GSEA molecular signature. Mechanically, the 3′UTR of ST3GAL1 mRNA was predicted to contain the putative binding sites of tRFdb-3013a/b, tRFdb-3013a/b might directly target ST3GAL1 and regulate ST3GAL1 expression in colon adenocarcinomas. Conclusions: These results suggested that tRFdb-3013a and tRFdb-3013b might serve as novel biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of colon adenocarcinomas, and play an important role in tumor progression of colon adenocarcinomas.