Identification of Chimeric NTRK3 Genes in Papillary Thyroid Cancer Cells by Analyzing the Imbalance of the Expression of 5 ’ and 3’ mRNA Fragments

The standard for detecting chimeric genes of neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinases (NTRK) is next generation sequencing (NGS). However, this analysis is expensive and takes several days. As a rapid screening method for the detection of NTRK3-dependent papillary thyroid cancer, an analysis of the expression imbalance between 5 ’ and 3’NTRK3 mRNA fragments was used (5 ’/3’ RT-PCR). The reference method for detection ofNTRK3 rearrangements was fluorescentin situ hybridization (FISH), and the most frequent rearrangements in papillary thyroid cancer were tested using reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR). Using 5 ’/3’ RT-PCR, 18 samples of papillary thyroid cancer carrying chimeric transcripts ofNTRK3 mRNA were detected. The sensitivity of the developed technique was 88.9% and specificity was 99.3%. Thus, a fast and cost-effective method of screening samples of papillary thyroid cancer in paraffin blocks is proposed with acceptable sensitivity and specificity.
Source: Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine - Category: Biology Source Type: research